Empire of Our Own: Rule The World
by sosinsastark
Summary: SEASON TWO: Murphy was my childhood best friend, and extremely pretty. An asshole most of the time, but a handsome asshole. The worst kind, really. Murphy/OC
1. The 48 and Inclement Weather

**SEASON TWO IS HERE. Holy shit balls. I wrote 20 pages today, I had wanted to get the first ten out so badly. NOTICE; Emori will not be in this story. The moral of this story is that if you get a face tattoo I'll write you out of existence. I'm joking. She's still not going to be in it though, and if she is, she will be there to be killed off within ten seconds. Don't worry kids, I know what I'm doing. **

**I love you all so much, and I hope you continue to review like you did for the first season. I'm going to try to drag this season out as long as a can, because once it's done I'll have to wait until season 3 is completely finished.**

* * *

Murphy's law; Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Let me just say that life sometimes sucks. It was almost as if the universe was trying to even out the joy of being with Murphy again by letting a string of horrible events roll out. For all of you new to my struggles, let's take a quick recap.

Instead of killing 100 juvenile delinquents, they sent us to earth to see if it was habitable. Myself, and my best friend Reed were among 98 others; one pissed off twenty something man faking being a guard, and his younger peeved friend whom he dragged with him.

The first week on earth went horrible for me. Grounders nearly killed me and my friend Jasper, and then tied us to a tree and left us for dead.

Bellamy (refer to pissed off twenty something) along with Reed, Murphy, Clarke, Finn, and Wells came and rescued Jasper and I. Murphy carried me back to camp, and then I had to deal with him being moody. For reference, Murphy was my childhood best friend, and extremely pretty. An asshole most of the time, but a handsome asshole. The worst kind, really.

Murphy protected Reed and I from some of the more troublesome delinquents until they nearly hanged him for a crime he didn't commit. (They also were near gang-banging me and you know, killing me too. I try not to think about that though. Or, any of it.) Murphy was banished, and I was left to fend for myself.

I poisoned Diggs, and although that wasn't the main reason as to why he died, it sure was important. Later, Murphy came back as biological warfare from the grounders. This time he was allowed to stay, and ended up killing Connor, Myles, and nearly hanging Bellamy.

Murphy and I ran away from his bad decisions, and then I was stabbed by a grounder. At that point in time, I had only one leg I even liked. Lefty (my left leg) had been both stabbed, and I had fallen wrong on it when I had left the dropship.

We were running out of ideas. Murphy couldn't carry me much further, and even if he could, where would we have gone? As much as I enjoyed being carried by Murphy, feeling his breath on my face and his strong arms wrapped around me; I knew he couldn't carry me forever. Also probably shouldn't carry me forever.

After having seen a mushroom cloud of smoke from the direction of the dropship, we decided we could probably go back in investigate. Neither of us wanted to, but I think Murphy could tell the fear for Reed's life was eating me up inside.

Reed was my best friend when I was inside the skybox. She also happened to be a somewhat distant relative of mine. We balanced each other out. When I was quiet, she was loud. When she wanted to run off and do something dumb, I stopped her.

Murphy had carried me back into the dropship. The camp was a mess. All the tents had been set on fire, and there were skeletons all around the dropship. Something crazy had gone down, and I had no clue what to expect inside the dropship.

I hadn't expected it to be nearly empty, though. Only Raven had remained, and she wasn't very happy to see us.

"Don't shoot." Murphy said, but when he turned his back slightly to put me down in a corner of the dropship, she shot multiple times. Her gun was empty though, so only the sounds of empty bullet chambers was heard. "Yeah, I'd have shot me too." Murphy mumbled as he sat down next to me, his strong arms wrapping around me.

Murphy normally wasn't so comforting, but I knew he had blamed himself for me getting stabbed by the grounder. He had tried to apologize the night before, and I shut him down on it. I was thankful he hadn't told them about the minefield. It gave Reed a fighting chance.

"Not to be that guy, but do you know if Reed is alive?" I asked, and Raven scoffed.

"These people came and took them all. Didn't bother with me, probably figured I was as good as dead." Raven spat, turning slightly to cough up blood. "Are there any more outside?" She asked as she lifted her head slightly to look at me.

I shook my head, all hope I had that Reed was alive was getting shot down with every bit of information I received. Maybe getting stabbed wasn't as worth it as much as I had first assumed.

Murphy at some point went out and got us some berries to eat. He gave some to Raven, but she just kept them on the floor next to herself, eyeing them suspiciously.

"They aren't poisonous, if that's what your wondering." Murphy remarked as he sat himself back down next to me, handing me a sack of water and some berries as well. I gave him a thankful smile, and he gave my right leg a comforting pat, his hand remaining.

"How did you become such a dick, Murphy." Raven asked, slowly taking one berry and popping it into her mouth. "How did either of you become dicks, actually. Did your parents not love you?"

Murphy's grip on my thigh slightly tightened. He hated talking about his parents. We both did. Neither of us had comforting childhoods. My mother had died giving birth to me, and my father ended up resenting me for it. So stereotypical, right? Like, get over it. So my father hardly was home, and when he was, I couldn't stand to be.

I had spent most of my childhood at Murphy's house. His parents were really nice. They had loved Murphy so much, that because being around me made him happy, I was always allowed. I was more welcome in his house than my own.

That is, until Murphy got sick. He fell extremely ill, scared the shit out of me and his father. Desperate, his father stole medicine. He was caught, and got floated. The real depressing part is that the medicine wouldn't have even helped, anyways. Murphy's father pretty much died for nothing, and his mother couldn't let that go. She ended up becoming as bad as my dad, and not too much later drank herself to death. Not before telling Murphy it was all his fault, though.

Murphy told her a short, mock version of the truth. It was hard enough for him to spit that out, and his hand ended up in mine before the end. If it hadn't, he probably would've squeezed the life out of my leg. I already had one bad leg, I didn't need two.

* * *

It wasn't much later when June appeared. Murphy nearly went homidical on the tall grounder who lingered behind her, and Murphy ended up with an arrow being pointed at his chest.

The man was extremely tan, and his hair was shorter on the sides than on the top of his head. He was also tall, and buff. Compared to me he was a giant. Although to be fair, a lot of people were giants compared to me

"Whoah, Breton it's fine." June's hands flew to the bow, and Breton let her lower it. Murphy scoffed, taking back a few steps closer to where I was still laying. "Breton, that is Murphy." June said as she grabbed Breton's hand. His gaze moved away from her and onto Murphy. "And that's Riley. And in the corner over there is Raven."

"Is this your grounder boyfriend you dumped us for?" I asked, eyeing Breton warily. His face seemed relatively familiar, but I couldn't place it.

"That's one way of putting it." June remarked, shrugging. "Breton was the one who put those bandages on you. Also, he shot a warning arrow near Reed that day at the river."

"I'm sorry, he shot an arrow at Reed?" I nearly jumped up. The idea of someone shooting an arrow anywhere near Reed made me want to leap up and scream. Refraining was hard, but I knew standing up with my bum leg would be even harder.

"A warning shot. Got her running away instead sticking around and getting herself killed." Breton finally spoke. His english was flawless, which was slightly unexpected. He also had a deep voice, which I supposed made sense. He looked considerably older than June, and probably had a good four or five years on her.

"And what, did he tell you that?" Murphy asked, taking another step back closer to me. I couldn't tell if Murphy's moving back was him trying to protect me from Breton, or casually show Breton that in some weird way that I was his. Either way it was slightly endearing.

"No, I saw him in the trees." It was clear June was getting slightly disgruntled. When she turned her head to look at Breton, I noticed half of her hair was braided. Her hair was long, and it made sense for her to braid it. I was slightly surprised she didn't just braid it all, but I had figured it was some sort of grounder thing.

"If he's such a great guy, then why didn't he help Murphy?" I asked, and Murphy looked back at me for a moment with a thankful smile on his face. His face turned serious as he looked back to Breton, waiting for a response.

"By the time Murphy had been captured, I had already been banished. I couldn't go back to my own people because of how much I tried to help you." Breton's voice was deep, and nothing about his stance made me want to question him further.

"Why are you two here?" Murphy asked, his posture still extremely tense. I wanted to reach out and hug him, or anything really to make him feel better. But I wasn't going anywhere with my leg the way it was.

"Breton wanted to see if it was really true." June mumbled, shrugging. I could tell June was sad, and I had a feeling it was because of Octavia. I had no clue where Octavia was, or even if she was alive. June, just like me, was without her best friend, and there was some emotion in her eyes that I could relate to deeply.

"If what was really true?" Raven finally piped in. She didn't move to try to watch anyone's reactions, and honestly I didn't blame her. I couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of pain she was in.

"The mountain men came out, and took your people." Breton's words sent shivers down my spine. I had imagined trolls coming down and stealing Reed, which was not a comforting thought.

We all stayed around in silence, too afraid to move. Finally, June sensed everyone's distaste for Breton, and turned her head to him. She started speaking in another language, (Remember, she was a linguist.) and although I had no clue what she said, I had a feeling it went down like this;

" _We should leave. Do you know where Lincoln would've taken Octavia? I want to make sure she is okay. I have a bad feeling_."

Whatever June had said to Breton he seemed to agree on. He quickly muttered something back, and without much words spoken from either of them towards us, they left.

* * *

Finally, I can say I didn't sleep through a debatably monumental event. Not that I could really have slept with the pain I felt coming from my leg, but still. Instead, Murphy had been asleep, which was slightly surprising.

After Breton and June had left, it took Murphy a long time to calm down. When he finally did, I told him he should go to sleep. He had carried me around for hours, after all. He seemed content with this idea, and quickly fell asleep with his head leant against the dropship's wall.

While he was asleep, I felt it was fair enough to lean my head against his shoulder. Whether or not he was cognizant to this, I didn't know. All I did know was that he rested his head on my head, and his hand wrapping around mine, grasping it tightly.

I had Murphy's knife in my other hand, and when an familiar older lady walked through the dropship doors, I slightly raised it. Raven jumped, and looked at the older woman like she was her savior.

"Abby?" Raven said questioningly, and finally I remembered where I had seen her before.

Abby Griffin was on of the Ark's main doctors, and also a prominent member of the council. She had visited me once every week for the first month I was in the skybox, checking on my weight and making sure I didn't get sick.

It was a damn shame they didn't care about how hungry I was until after I stole food.

Abby had walked to me, noticing the blood on my pants. Quickly I shook my head, and pointed to Raven with the knife. "Her first." Abby nodded, and hastily ran to Raven.

As more of the Guard filled in, I tried to pull my head away from Murphy's shoulder. He jerked awake, the grip on my hand tightening for a moment before it loosened slightly.

"We need a stretcher, now!" Abby yelled, and one of the guards moved closer to me, noticing my leg. His hand shot out to help me up, but Murphy's free hand shot out and pushed it away.

"I've got her." Murphy hissed and watched as the guy raise his hands in surrender. Murphy waited for him to walk away before he let go of my hand. Murphy kneeled slightly, and I grabbed onto his shoulders before wrapping my arms around his neck

Pain shot up my leg, and I hissed. Murphy let out a sharp exhale as he wrapped one arm behind my back, and the other under my knees. It took him a moment to step up and start walking, but once he did he quickly started heading outside.

I went to let go of Murphy, but he tensed up. I turned my head to look at him. His face was tense, and he quietly whispered, "Don't." I had no clue if it was because it was easier to carry me this way, or if he was having a moment. I wanted to press him about it when he stopped walking completely and a look of horror washed over his face.

"You murdering son of a bitch!" I didn't even need to look to know it was Bellamy. I held tighter to Murphy and closed my eyes, mainly because Bellamy sounded beyond pissed, and I could hear heavy footsteps. I could just see him ripping me from Murphy and pummeling the shit out of him.

Murphy quickly turned, shielding me from Bellamy with his body. My eyes shot open, and I could see Bellamy's fists tighten. He raised one slightly, and was about to punch Murphy in the kidney when a guard quickly intervened, striking him with an electric baton. Finn, whom appeared right by Bellamy, looked awestruck.

"Place him under arrest!" Another man yelled, and when my eyes made it to him I immediately knew that it was Kane, yet another member of the council. Luckily for me he was pointing at Bellamy when he said it, as opposed to Murphy.

"No, you don't understand!" Finn yelled, his hands raising. "Murphy killed two of our people. Shot another one. He tried to hang Bellamy."

Murphy and I were beyond tense as Finn spewed out all of Murphy's bad choices. We were holding on to each other so tightly I doubted anyone would be able to pry us apart.

"I don't care. You are not animals." Kane hissed, "There are rules, laws. You are not in control anymore."

Thank god. I could've kissed Kane for saying that. I understood Bellamy was pissed, but seriously, he had been like five seconds away from causing Murphy to drop me. Or, even worse, causing Murphy to fall on top of me.

Under normal circumstances, I would've enjoyed Murphy on top of me. (I wouldn't have admitted it to his face, but still.) But, with a bum leg, I didn't want any weight on me, let alone Murphy who weighed considerably more than me.

* * *

The walk back to where the Alpha station had dropped was tense. Actually, 'tense' is putting it too lightly. Bellamy and Finn spent the whole walk glaring daggers into Murphy's back. I kept my eyes trained on them the whole time, my chin resting on Murphy's shoulder and my arms wrapped around him as he carried me. Kane had put Bellamy in handcuffs after his attempt at beating the shit out of Murphy, but part of me doubted that could stop him if he had tried. So instead, I watched him as he watched me.

I had never realized how big Alpha station was until Murphy nudged me, and I turned away from glaring at Bellamy and looked at the wreck. It was huge, like seriously ginormous.

"Were going to need to take her to medical." A man, whose name I later learned was Sinclair said.

"Great, show me the way." Murphy hissed, trying to make his way around Sinclair. Sinclair sighed.

"We can take her from here." Sinclair pushed, and I felt Murphy go rigid.

"No." I finally choked out. Sinclair looked at me in surprise. I hadn't really spoken the whole walk to Alpha station, I had just let Murphy mumble calming nonsense into my ear. "Please, I need him with me."

Sinclair sighed again before looking around. "Fine." He whispered, moving out of the way slightly. "Don't make me regret this choice."

Sinclair followed closely behind us, telling Murphy which way to walk. When we got to the medical center, I noticed Raven was already laid down on a bed. Finn was right next to her, holding her hand.

"Bet they didn't have any quarrels with Spacewalker staying with Raven." Murphy whispered into my ear as he walked across the room to the other open bed.

Shivers immediately crept across my skin when Murphy laid me down on the bed. Suddenly, everything seemed ten degrees colder. I couldn't help but shake slightly, and Murphy noticed this. His had crept down my arm, tracing my skin and letting me soak up the warmth.

"Prep her for surgery." Abby stated as she stormed into the room, pointing at Raven but making her way towards me. "Why is Murphy still here?" Abby asked as she drew closer, and Murphy's hand made his way to mine.

"You do realize I'm going to need to take your pants off to look at your leg, right?" Abby looked from Murphy to me blankly.

I could see a light smirk creep onto Murphy's face as he let go of my hand and dropped himself into the chair right next to the bed.

"Do you really want him here for this?" Abby whispered to me as she got closer, surveying my leg.

"Save me the trouble Abby and take my damn pants off. They are just legs." I huffed out, my stomach going sour. The pain was making its way up my body, and I just wanted it all to be done.

Abby shrugged in defeat, and with one more quick distasteful side glance to Murphy, she peeled my pants off. Murphy politely looked away for the majority, and only snuck a peak once. The color drained from his face when he saw the gaping hole in my leg, and he clinched his jaw before quickly turning away again.

Abby working on my leg brought me right back to how I felt when the grounders were slashing me up. She had no pain killers, and had to do stitches inside my leg before she could sew up the top. Not only that, but she used alcohol to clean out the wound, reminding me just how deep that knife had really gone.

Luckily for me, I looked down slightly at my leg and the sight of it made me pass out. I hadn't slept for over a day anyways, and seeing my muscles like that was horrific.

* * *

It seemed like only minutes later I was being shaken awake by Murphy. It had been five hours though, and Abby had officially cleared me. Also she had put me in a clean pair of pants, which was nice of her. The bonus was that they actually fit really well.

I had no clue what being cleared meant until I looked down at Murphy's hands. His hands were bound, and I groaned. He nodded and stepped out of the way, and watched bitterly as Sinclair wrapped wire around my own wrists.

"Precautions" is what Sinclair called it. What I called it was assholery. They made me limp to a room with Murphy, and who was in the room made everything even worse. It was Bellamy, and as we made our way into the room they tied him to a pole across from us.

Sinclair was kind enough to tie Murphy and I to the same pole, and I grimaced in pain as I sat down.

"Well this should be fun." Murphy mumbled as he glared straight ahead of him at Bellamy. Bellamy scoffed, anger washing over his face as he looked away from us.

Every part of my body ached. Whenever I closed my eyes the world swung a bit, and even breathing was an adventure down painsville.

What I needed was a distraction. Anything to pull me away from sitting in my own self pity. Instead, what I received was silence and then the echoing screams of Raven's surgery finally taking place.

I had to hand it to her, she could really bust out the pipes to scream. She screamed louder than Jasper had when we were tied to the tree, which really said something about the amount of pain she was in.

"Yeah, that was me." Murphy mumbled, and I looked at him. He had a morose look on his face, and I could tell he was reliving what had happened with the grounders.

I was curious as to what had happened to him, with the grounders. But I was also unsure if I should have been pressing the subject.

Bellamy groaned, clearly having no trouble with the topic. "You're a traitor." Bellamy spat as he gave Murphy a look of utter disgust.

Murphy grimaced, shaking his head before looking at me. "Four days." He choked out. "They started with their fists. Punching any part of me they could reach. Once I couldn't stand up, they'd kick. That didn't last long after they realized it wasn't very motivational for me." He paused, and looked away. His hands had started shaking slightly.

I didn't want to physically reach out. Lifting my arm off my knee to wrap my fingers around his was a huge task. But the smile that touched his lips when I did, made the pain worth it. Besides, I'm a real baby when it comes to pain, so I had a feeling I was being a bit melodramatic about my state of being.

"They went for the fingernails next. They sat me down in a wooden chair, and tied my wrists to the arm rests. The thumb's were the first nails to go. They had experience with this sort of torture, I could tell. They knew just how to pull it off so that it sent a wave of pain up through my muscles."

Murphy's nails still hadn't fully healed yet. I could feel the coarse line from where his nails had been beaten in the cuticle before finally starting to grow back. I had never lost a nail before, but just seeing the slivers of skin where a nail should be on Murphy's fingers, made my stomach want to curl into itself and die.

Bellamy's laughter reminded me of his existence in the room. My eyes lifted from Murphy's hands to his face. Murphy's eyes became trained on Bellamy, and I could see he was near snapping.

"You think could've done better?" Murphy taunted, a scowl etching onto his face. It must've been so painful to make facial expressions with the amount of cuts on his face.

"Yeah. I know I would've done better." Bellamy spat back, and then paused. Now Bellamy was just being plain rude, and I was starting to have enough of it.

"Have you ever been kidnapped by the grounders, Bellamy?" I asked, raising a brow.

"No but-" Bellamy started, but I quickly cut him off.

"Oh, so you've never been kidnapped by them? So, You've never felt cloth over your head as some people tie you up and carry you somewhere? You've never had strange men get up into your face as they said words that you couldn't even fathom. You've never felt the terror of not knowing where you are, and the only thing you can take solace in is that while you're locked up, anything can happen next." I was surprised I had the motive to speak so brashly while it had felt like a dropship was crushing my lungs. Silence filled the air, making me speak up once again.

"I was lucky. How shitty is that? I was lucky enough not to get tortured for too long by them. I have no clue why. They never spoke directly to me. They kept a bag over my head and diced me up a bit and then tied me to a tree. Why? I have no clue. Maybe it was to show us all an example. That this is what happens when you cross their line." Murphy's hand squeezed mine, and I knew he was sympathizing with me. I finally looked away from Bellamy's scowling face to see the sadness etched in Murphy's.

"Regardless, I can't even begin to know how you to kept it together for four days, Murphy. Thats amazing. You went through four days of hell, and for what? All the delinquents are assholes, save a few. Namely myself, Reed, Sterling, Monty, and a few others." I said, quieter than the rest of my speech. It wasn't for Bellamy to hear, as opposed to the rest of my sass had been.

Murphy shrugged, looking down at our hands as he let his thumb glide across the back of my hand. "I wasn't going to let them hurt you. I hated myself for giving up, the possibility that my slip up could result in your death." I had wanted to cry at his words. He let himself get tortured, for me?

"So Bellamy, knowing what you know now, do you think you could last? Or are you going to continue to be an ignorant bitch on an experience you've never had to go through?" I spat back at Bellamy, looking over incredulously at him.

Bellamy shook his head as he shifted his body to face the door.

Yelling at Bellamy didn't make me feel any better, but it hadn't made me feel any worse, either.


	2. Reapercussions

JOIN THE CONVERSATION; On my profile there is a link to the Tumblr I made for this story. If you are a fan of sneak peaks and such, go over there and check it out. I cry over how much I'm ruining my own life with this story. 

* * *

REAPERCUSSIONS - AKA I think we need to talk about Finn

* * *

I woke up hours later feeling intensely better. Mind you, I still felt like shit. Just considerably less like shit. I had fallen asleep leaning my forehead against the cold pole, but woke up semi-sprawled on the floor. The more stretched out I was the easier it was to breathe. Murphy had fallen asleep while I had been asleep. He had also stretched out on the floor, and if I turned my head I could feel his breath tickle my face.

Hesitantly, I reached out to touch his cheek. It was warm, but also rough. I don't know how long we laid there with my hand on his face, but I could feel his smirk grow under my fingers as he woke up.

"You just can't keep your hands off of me, can you?" Murphy teased, slowly opening his eyes.

"I guess not." I admitted, smiling as I knew my words threw him. His eyes shot open and his mouth went slightly agape. We stared into each other's eyes as I slowly turned my body completely towards his, mimicking his position.

I could see a thought spark in his eyes, and before I could ask him what he was planning, his hand shot out and grabbed my hip.

Before his hand could get much farther though a loud groan came from the other side of the room.

"Whatever it is that you two are doing needs to stop right now, before I throw up." Bellamy said, and I could hear him shift around uncomfortably.

Murphy frowned, but also let his hand drop back to his side. I let out a deep sigh before dragging myself up to sit on the floor, and looking over at Bellamy.

Bellamy looked like shit, and I kind of felt bad for him. Clarke was M.I.A., and so was his sister as far as I knew. Reed may have been gone, but I still had Murphy. Who did Bellamy have, Finn? Not to say that Finn was a bad person to have, I just didn't think they had that sort of relationship. Although, I could've been wrong.

"How's your face?" I asked biting my lip and cringing at how awkward I was being. From beside me I heard Murphy chuckle lightly before he sat up as well, watching Bellamy for his reaction.

"This is just what my face looks like, Riley." Bellamy spat, rolling his eyes before looking over at the door. "You would know if you had bothered to look at me anytime within the past month."

"That's fair." I mumbled, nodding my head. "I just never realized you always looked so damn depressed." I added, shrugging at him.

Murphy let out a string of coughs, most likely to hide laughter. Before Bellamy or Murphy could comment, the door burst open. I jumped to my feet, and was beyond thankful that my leg didn't nearly hurt as much as it did the day before. Abby had given me some antibiotics and i.v. fluids after I had fainted that day, so maybe I was getting better.

It was Finn and Monroe, and they ignored Murphy and I as they cut Bellamy free. "Get up, we're going after them." Finn whispered to Bellamy as he helped pull him up.

Murphy quickly jumped to his feet next to me before saying, "Hey, what about us." Finn gave us an aphrenrsive look before turning away, ready to leave us.

Finn was being fucking rude if you asked me, but as always nobody did. I mean, we never really had a good relationship, but I wouldn't have ever said we weren't friendly to each other.

Bellamy however grabbed the pliers on the ground and stormed over to us. I nearly fell down in fear and surprise, remembering how just minutes ago I had pretty much told him he looked like his face had been hurt, because of how unattractive he looked. Murphy quickly stepped in front of me, shielding Bellamy from me before he cringed as well.

Nobody had expected Bellamy to cut Murphy loose, however. "Hey, no!" Finn stammered, looking incredulously at Bellamy.

"Murphy has been to the grounders prison camp, he can lead us there." Bellamy remarked, as Murphy moved slightly out of the way and watched nervously as Bellamy also cut me loose. "And they are a two for one deal." Bellamy added as he dropped the pliers at my feet.

"Damn right we are two for one." I whispered, rubbing my wrists and skeptically looking at Monroe and Finn.

Murphy chuckled under his breath and Monroe quickly added, "Sterling just signaled, someone's coming."

Murphy's smile faded as Bellamy roughly grabbed his neck and started pushing him towards the door. As if on reflex Murphy's hand shot out and quickly grabbed mine, dragging me along with them as they ran out into the hallway.

Bellamy's hand stayed on Murphy's neck until we had gotten outside camp Jaha's gates. Even then however he didn't stray too far away from us, and Monroe and Sterling flanked us. Finn led the way, consistently appearing five seconds away from losing his mind.

As we made it through the trees by camp, a light flashed on us. Murphy stopped so quickly that I ran into his back, having to grab his shoulder with my free hand to steady myself.

"You're late." A female voice remarked, and I peered around Murphy to see Abby next to Miller's dad who was holding the flashlight pointed at us.

"Bellamy decided to bring company." Finn bitterly commented, tilting his head towards us. It was obvious from Finn's tone that he had completely disagreed with Bellamy's choice.

"I'll have you know I'm great company." I whispered, only loud enough for Murphy to hear. Murphy smiled as my hand moved from his shoulder to his upper arm, bringing myself slightly closer to our held hands.

"Yeah, you're a real fucking treasure." Murphy teased, bending his head towards me as he whispered in my ear. I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, and at that moment I hadn't really cared. If I wasn't a fucking treasure, he would have dropped my hand by now, right? Instead his thumb stroked the back of my hand as he looked back at Abby.

"He's the only one who's been in their camp." Bellamy stated dryly, and I could tell he was already getting tired of explaining his motives. Although Bellamy also appeared tired of everything. Maybe that's what being twenty did to you.

"Yeah, and we're a two for one deal." Murphy added as he glanced back over at Miller's dad from Abby.

Abby seemed unsure as she looked at Murphy for a moment before finally looking at me. There was sadness in her eyes, and she finally nodded and handed a gun to Finn.

Miller's dad quickly took off his machine gun, handing it over to Bellamy. "Here, find my son. His name is Nathan Miller."

I frowned, wishing I had a dad who would give someone a gun to find me. I wasn't paying attention anymore however, and suddenly Abby and Daddy Miller moved aside, Finn once again taking the lead as we continued to walk towards what in my mind might have been certain death. Or, in my case, limp while relying perhaps too much on the fact that Murphy held my hand to keep me steady.

* * *

"Alright, where to now Murphy?" Bellamy asked for what must've been at least the fifteenth time within the last few hours. He stopped and looked at Murphy, obviously fed up.

Murphy had been pointing Finn in a direction every once in a while. Occasionally Murphy would stop, grab my hand and drag me another direction for a few feet before dropping it again. Sterling had lost all concentration, like myself. Except he didn't have someone yanking him in the right direction, so more than a few times he had ran into me. Every time Sterling ran into me I snorted while Murphy looked over his shoulder at Sterling with anger written all over his face. It was kind of amusing.

"Why don't you give me a gun and I'll tell you." Murphy replied dryly as he stopped next to Bellamy.

I quickly skirted around the two before stopping a few feet away near Finn. Sterling ran into Murphy this time, and I could tell it took all the willpower in the world for Murphy to not punch Sterling in the face. I wasn't quite sure, but for some reason those two never really hit it off. Probably because Sterling had hung around me more than Murphy liked. And Murphy had never had to share me growing up, so the idea of me around other guys is apparently very problematic.

"Not gonna happen." Bellamy dismissed, glaring intently at Murphy. Murphy exhaled, clearly annoyed. Murphy took another step closer to Bellamy to distance himself from Sterling.

Sterling glanced at me before shrugging and looking back at Murphy and Bellamy. I wanted to laugh at his reaction. Typical Sterling, shrugging at just about any situation.

"How am I supposed to defend myself?" Murphy retorted, lifting his head back as he started walking again.

Bellamy rolled his eyes as he quickly walked past me to Finn. In Bellamy's mind, the conversation was over.

I waited as Murphy walked slightly past me, following Bellamy. He stopped, tilting his head to the side to look back at me. I shrugged, quickly grabbing his hand comfortingly and pulling him to walk with me.

"If it comes down to it, we could always run." I threw out, and I could feel his eyes on me as we continued walking behind Finn and Bellamy. "Or play dead. Suffocate them, poison them. Hide and hope they leave. Sacrifice Bellamy and Finn to them." At the last one Bellamy threw a glare back at me.

I finally heard Murphy chuckle before letting out a deep sigh. "A gun would be easier." He said, loud enough for Bellamy to hear.

"Not gonna happen." Bellamy repeated, not even bothering to look back.

The next hour went by with me holding Murphy's hand as I came up with even more bizarre survival situations, and with Murphy pointing out the flaw with every single one. I had just been about to mention the most unrealistic situation yet, one where we turned the grounders against each other, when suddenly Murphy let go of my hand and tackled me to the ground.

"Everybody down." Murphy hissed as he pushed me down further with his weight. Completely rude and unnessecary.

I tried to crawl from under him when he pushed me down so hard my face nearly had a meeting with the ground. "I told you I'd find it." Murphy whispered, and I looked to our left to see Bellamy kneeled down beside us, using the dirt mound in front of us as cover.

"Can you move?" I hissed, trying to push Murphy's right arm away in a pathetic attempt to be free.

"Shut up Riley." Murphy and Bellamy hissed back.

I swear, what was it with people wanting me to shut up? I wasn't being loud. I couldn't be loud with Murphy's chest so close to my back, feeling his breath on the back of my neck. All I had wanted to do was to move, but no. I got told to shut up instead.

"I see nothing but grounders." Bellamy remarked as he looked through the machine gun's view finder. "Our people aren't here."

I huffed for a moment, the idea of having walked all the way into enemy territory for nothing. No Reed, no Clarke, no one. Murphy slowly moved himself away from me, peering over the dirt mound more. I took the space to mean I was free to look as well, and quickly brought my head up near his, his breath blowing my hair around slightly.

"Wait a minute." Finn added, and I looked around Bellamy to see Finn right next to him, also looking in the view finder of his gun. "They have stuff from the dropship." Finn added, and my eyes shot back to the grounders ahead. I couldn't see much, but I still had some false hope that Reed would be there.

"So maybe they know where our friends are." Bellamy grunted.

"Yeah. Or maybe they killed them already." Murphy dryly added.

"Always such a sunny outlook, Murph." I remarked, turning my head slightly to look at him. He merely smirked and nodded as he looked back at me. My heart did jumping jacks while his face was so close to mine, which I'm not quite sure is a healthy reaction.

"Son of a bitch." Finn said, dragging both mine and Murphy's attention away from each other and onto him.

"What is it?" Bellamy asked, looking over slightly at Finn before looking back into his view finder.

"The guy with the one eye." Finn said, and suddenly I found myself looking for a guy with one eye, curious as to what he could possibly look like. "Around his neck."

"Is it teeth?" I asked, my mind bringing up memories of a few of the grounders I had seen. They wore teeth as necklaces, most likely to showcase their kills.

"He's got clarks's watch." Finn continued, ignoring my comment.

"That's a weird thing to put around your neck." I added, frowning. Who the hell wears a watch around their neck when they could wear teeth? There's nothing impressive about a watch, unless the hand was still attached.

"It was her father's." Finn said, sadness and anger evident in his voice.

"Souvenior of a kill?" Murphy asked, and I let out a deep sigh. If it was a souvenir of a kill, Reed was probably dead too, which was not my preferred scenario. Actually, that was the complete opposite of my preferred scenario.

"Well." I exhaled, getting worried. But then my mind started working. "If it was a kill, you'd think he'd have gone bigger, right?" I asked, looking from Bellamy to Murphy. "Like, the dude has one eye, he'd want to showcase his strength." I further explained, trying to calm myself down more than anyone else. I couldn't let myself think Reed was dead.

"What, with teeth?" Murphy asked, and although he chuckled slightly at his own words, I could tell he knew I had a point. Which was damn right true.

"With teeth. Maybe he just found the watch." I added, as I looked ahead again hopefully. I couldn't see jack shit without a view finder, but I still tried.

"She wouldn't have given that up without a fight." Bellamy said as he shook his head, the gun moving slightly as he watched the one eyed man walk.

"She would've given it up a lot easier than her teeth." I mumbled, and Murphy chuckled again as he let his head drop even closer to mine, our cheeks touching. Once again, his face so close to mine, and his chin against my shoulder, made my heart do some weird things. I think it might have stopped for a moment.

"Neither will we." Finn said, adding on to what Bellamy had said and completely ignoring me. Per usual, I suppose. I was starting to wonder why they even let me tag along.

"But we're not even sure." I said as I felt Murphy lift his face and body away from mine to look at Bellamy and Finn, who were about ready to devise a plan.

"You're not sure. We are." Bellamy deadpanned as he looked got up slightly to look better at Finn. "Okay, you're with me." Bellamy said, and Finn nodded back. He quickly looked over to the other side of Murphy and I to Monroe and Sterling as he added, "You two stay here, out of sight. If this thing goes south, take out the other grounders but don't shoot the grounder with the watch. Copy?"

"Copy." Sterling said, nodding his head but not bothering to get up from his crouching stance next to Murphy.

"Copy." Monroe agreed, "What about Murphy and Riley?" She added, and I could tell from her tone she was giving me some sort of stink eye.

"Yeah, do I get a gun now?" Murphy said, looking from Finn to Bellamy.

"Something like that." Bellamy said, roughly grabbing Murphy's arm and dragging him up. Murphy took no time to yank me up as well, and before I knew it we were being dragged further away behind some trees by Bellamy and Finn.

* * *

Bellamy had freaking lied. He didn't give Murphy a gun. He didn't give me one either, (for the very reason of me realistically handing any gun I got to Murphy. He wasn't wrong.) He gave Murphy and I both some rocks he had found on the ground, and had us sit a few trees away from each other and play percussion with rocks.

First time I had actually been asked to do something helpful and it was to play with rocks. How pathetic is that? I was nearly angry enough to throw a rock at Bellamy's face, but I knew that outcome would not be favorable for anyone. So instead, I sat behind a tree while pouting and smacking two rocks together until the dumb ass grounder came to inspect the situation.

Bellamy whacked him over the head, knocking him out. For the record, I was not for this plan. And I was really not for the plan Finn had devised, which included them all dragging the grounder to some bunker Finn had found one time. They didn't even try to carry the grounder down the stairs. Bellamy was about to, and then Finn pushed the grounder down the hole and let him hit the ground with a loud smack.

It took a few hours for the grounder to wake after that, and when he did he found himself tied up. His hands were bound behind his back, tied to his feet. By the end of the first fifteen minutes of Bellamy and Finn asking the grounder the same question, I was starting to get tired of hearing the desperation in Finn's voice.

Murphy and I were sat on the lower bed of the bunk bed, and just looking at the metal frame reminded me of Reed. We had bunk beds in the skybox on the ark. Reed had the claimed bottom, and I was perfectly content climbing to the top. We had spent so many late nights on that bunk bed, giggling. She'd get bored and I would find my mattress moving, her feet kicking it.

"We're going to do this again and this time you're going to stop screwing with us. Where did you find this?" Bellamy demanded, stepping closer to the grounder as he waved the watch in the grounder's face.

It was so annoying hearing them bicker with this damn grounder. They were getting nowhere. Why would the grounder even bother telling them? They weren't threatening to punch him. No motivation what-so-ever. I threw my head back, rolling my eyes before letting myself lean back to lay down on the bed.

"I told you, I found it outside your camp." The grounder said, for the thirtieth time. All I could do was glare at the mattress above me, hoping this would be over soon and we'd get out of this stuffy bunker. The adventure had dragged on far too long, and we still had nothing to go on.

"He's lying. She would never take it off voluntarily." Finn hissed to Bellamy.

"I know." Bellamy said, trying to calm Finn down. I didn't know why Finn was allowed a gun with the way he was acting. Finn appeared to be five seconds away from killing us all if it meant seeing Clarke again. I didn't know what had made Finn snap, but whatever it was must've been big. The guy was a peacemaker like a week before.

"Where is the girl who was wearing this watch?" Finn yelled at the grounder, and I wanted to stuff my fingers in my ears so I didn't have to hear him be annoying anymore. Instead I tried to be an adult and just exhaled very loudly in annoyance.

"I told you, I didn't see any girl." The grounder said again, making me exhale loudly again. I was hoping they'd get the point. Which was that this method of whatever wasn't working. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life here.

"Another lie." Murphy said, his hand going to my knee and startling me. "Maybe if you stopped asking nicely-" Murphy continued, until Bellamy got tired of hearing Murphy's voice. Which was rude, considering he was just saying what we were thinking. And what was pretty much true.

"Shut up Murphy." Bellamy dismissed, which kind of made me feel better. At least it wasn't me being told to shut up.

"He has a point." I stated flatly, lifting myself back into a sitting position to knock Murphy's hand away and glare at Bellamy.

"Shut up, Riley." Bellamy retorted. It always seemed I was about two conversations away from being told to shut up when Bellamy was around, mainly by Bellamy himself. Rude. "Where are our friends? You took them. We know you did. Just tell us where." Bellamy continued as he focused back on the grounder.

"Murphy's right." Finn hissed as he pushed Bellamy out of the way, his hand forming a fist. "Answer the question!" Finn yelled, his fist colliding with the grounders face. My mouth dropped.

Not only had Finn starting agreeing with Murphy, but he just went ahead and punched the grounder. One week and he went from trying to get along with the grounders to beating the shit out of one. Damn.

"Hey, hey!" Bellamy yelled, grabbing Finn and yanking him away from the grounder.

"That escalated quickly." I whispered to Murphy, looking next to me at him in shock. He also appeared surprised, but probably more because that was the first time someone other than me said he was right.

"Where is the girl who was wearing this watch?" Finn continued to yell, trying to push Bellamy off of himself.

"Finn stop. You don't want to do this!" Bellamy tried to reason, but we all knew that was a lie. Finn wanted to do anything it took. "There are some lines you can't uncross." Bellamy sounded like he was talking from experience, and it took me a moment to remember that they had tortured Lincoln. Ironically enough, for Finn.

"Where is Clarke? Where is she." Finn kept babbling, as Bellamy's arm's went up in front of Finn again. "Back off!" Finn finally yelled at Bellamy, pushing himself away from Bellamy and then drawing his gun on Bellamy.

Instinctively at the draw of the gun, I nearly jumped up and ran. Murphy however was quicker and grabbed my hand, pulling me closer to him and also a little behind him.

"This is really escalating. Holy shit." I whispered as I clung onto Murphy's upper arm, bringing my head close to his so Finn wouldn't hear and draw the gun on me instead.

"Put the gun down, Finn." Bellamy said, but didn't sound too confident and raised his arms slightly to show he wasn't pulling any funny business.

"He's going to kill everyone, isn't he?" Murphy turned his head, his lips only inches away from my ear as he spoke. Quickly I turned my head to look at him, our faces only inches apart as I nodded. The fear I felt inside me was shown on Murphy's face.

Finn didn't drop the gun however, and instead pointed it at the grounder. "Three seconds." Finn said, his voice devoid of all emotion. If there had been a window in the bunker, I would have already been half out of it. This situation oozed insanity, and I had a feeling it was only going to get worse. "Two." Finn continued, waiting another moment before readying the gun and saying, "One."

"Okay!" The grounder yelled, startling me even more then the situation had already. "I'll tell you. Your friends are east of here." The grounder said, closing his one eye and hoping Finn wouldn't shoot.

"East where?" Finn demanded. "How do we get them?" He took a step closer to the grounder, the gun still aimed at the grounder's head.

"This gun flailing and not knowing east is getting a little too much for me." I whispered to Murphy, my grip on his upper arm tightening. I could feel my breathing quicken as my body went into panic mode. Panic mode for my body was just horrible shaking, which I didn't really want to deal with right then.

"At least we are getting somewhere." Murphy tried to reason back to me, but his voice quivered slightly and I could tell that he knew Finn had lost his mind completely.

"I can draw you a map." The grounder reasoned, before adding "But you should hurry, soon they'll outlive their usefulness."

Now that made my blood boil a bit. Outlive their usefulness? I didn't even want to consider we'd be too late to get Reed. I clenched my teeth, exhaling from my nose deeply to try to calm myself.

Finn nodded, "Get him something to draw a map." The gun in Finn's hand lowered slightly as Monroe grabbed some paper and a pen, and Bellamy untied the grounder only enough for him to draw a really shitty map.

Murphy stood up as the grounder started to draw, and my hold on his upper arm pulled me up too. Murphy slowly walked past Bellamy, smirking slightly.

"You thought I was the crazy one, huh?" Murphy remarked, raising a brow at Bellamy.

"You gave a gun to a guy so desperate to find the like, love of his life that he would do anything to get her. Instead of giving it to Murphy. You're gonna wanna reflect on that." I whispered quietly to Bellamy, causing his scowl to deepen.

Murphy nodded, before he continued leading me across the bunker to lean against the wall, creating distance between Finn and ourselves.

* * *

Murphy and I stayed leaning against the other side of the bunker's walls, watching Finn wearily. He kept pacing, and I swear he had crazy eyes, even after the map had been fully drawn and the grounder was retied.

"Gather up your gear, we're leaving." Bellamy said to Sterling and Monroe, whom had stayed near the bunker's ladder the whole time. Smart move, really. If this went south with Finn they could get out a lot quicker than us.

"What about him?" Sterling finally spoke up, nodding towards the grounder on the floor.

"For now, we leave him. We'll deal with him when we're done." Bellamy said, and I watched Murphy tense slightly beside me before pushing himself away from the wall.

"What if he escapes?" Murphy asked, glaring at Bellamy.

"He does know where we are going." I agreed. I'd already been tortured once by the grounders, I didn't need to be tortured again. And that was what was going to happen if the grounder got loose while we were gone.

"We are not killing him." Bellamy dismissed, looking at Sterling and Monroe for backup.

"I'm not seeing another option here." Murphy insisted, taking another step closer to Bellamy. "If we don't take care of this now, this is gonna blow back on us." Murphy was right, but Bellamy was convinced otherwise. Bellamy was always convinced otherwise.

"You guys did beat the shit out of him. Most people don't like that." I tried reminding Bellamy of the truth, but Bellamy only sighed and shook his head.

"He's unarmed." Bellamy's excuses were getting plain pathetic. He had started a war against them, and now he wanted to let this one go?

"He's a grounder." Murphy said, looking at Sterling and Monroe for support.

"I don't know." Monroe faltered, a nervous look spreading over her face. Sterling shrugged, as always. The guy had a signature move, and man did he stick to it.

"What do you mean, 'I don't know'? He's gonna tell his people everything. We're as good as dead." Murphy spat, about to throw his hands up in the air in annoyance.

"We're worse than dead. When they are done with us, we will wish that we were dead." I couldn't help but choke out, and Murphy turned his head to look at me. His hand reached out and I grabbed it, stepping closer to him in a feeble attempt to feel safer.

"Our friends too." Murphy added, looking back at Bellamy.

"Look." Bellamy exhaled deeply, "We are not doing this. End of discussion. You want him, you're gonna have to go through me." Bellamy took a step in front of the grounder.

"What happened to you, huh?" Murphy spat. "You're talking like you've never killed a grounder."

"That was battle. This would be an execution." Bellamy said, and it was my turn to exhale deeply.

"We are still at war. You started this." I remarked, my frown at Bellamy only deepening.

We were all so busy glaring at each other that Finn was able to walk past Bellamy and shoot the grounder in the head.

The gunshot echoing through the bunker was almost deafening, and I cringed instinctively, stepping closer to Murphy.

"Let's get moving." Finn hissed as he walked past Bellamy towards the stairs, the map in his hand.

It took everyone a moment to start moving. We all seemed too afraid to follow Finn, but slowly Sterling and Monroe followed Finn up the ladder. Murphy quickly stormed past Bellamy, dragging me along with him. He was shaking his head at Bellamy before he dropped my hand and motioned for me to go up the ladder first.

"You're gonna wanna reflect on that, Bellamy." I called out behind me, and I heard Murphy chuckle as I started climbing up the ladder.

Murphy and I had no clue what we had gotten ourselves into, but we were more than certain it wasn't good.


	3. Many Happy Returns and Human Trials

**Happy Murphiley Mondays!**  
 **No one reviewed last chapter, RUDE.**  
 **I already have this whole season written so if I was you I'd review so the next chapter comes out sooner.  
Please go check out the tumblr I made for this story! Link is in my profile, or look for tumblr with URL rileyparkerneedstoshutup. **

* * *

We ran for what felt like hours. It was probably only an hour, but it was one hell of an hour. Keep in mind I had been stabbed in the leg not even a week earlier. So it wasn't much of running for me as it was hastily limping while Murphy held my hand for support. As the hour grew Murphy looked angry and angrier when he looked at Bellamy, and gave me more sympathetic glances.

"Everyone, eyes peeled." Bellamy barked over his shoulder, "We're in grounder territory."

I couldn't help but snort at that. We were never not in grounder territory. Murphy groaned beside me and let out a deep exhale as he looked back at me before speaking up.

"Everything is grounder territory, alright?" Murphy spat, and he slowed down slightly as he caught another glimpse of my leg. "Riley can't keep running with that leg." Murphy added as he slowed his pace down to a stop. "We don't even know if the guy Finn killed is telling the truth."

Monroe and Sterling stopped behind us, and Bellamy turned to look at all of us standing still before sighing. Murphy turned his head to glare at Bellamy, almost daring Bellamy to make us move.

"Keep moving." Finn said, looking back at us for a moment as well before turning back around. Bellamy yanked Finns arm, pulling him back to stop him.

"Give them a minute." Bellamy said defeatedly as he looked from Finn to us.

"No, we can't. You heard what that grounder said, 'they'll outlive their usefulness.'" Finn remarked, looking at Bellamy offended. But also with that glimmer of crazy eyes. Ah yes, within that hour I had almost forgotten what Finn's crazy eyes looked like. I had also realized I hadn't missed it, either.

"Guys, I'm okay." I said as I let go of Murphy's hand and tried to walk in front of him, tripping over my own legs and nearly falling. Luckily for me Murphy's hands shot out grabbed me, one hand on my shoulder and the other on my hip, making sure I didn't fall, but also not letting go. He pulled me closer to him, my back hitting his chest. "Besides, I've heard you only need one leg to survive." I added jokingly, trying to make light of the pain I was in. As if joking about it would make it go away.

"That's kidneys." Murphy shot back as he pulled me even closer to him, shaking his head in disdain as his hand on my shoulder dropped, but his hand around my waist stayed.

"I'm sure the principle still applies. Probably." I remarked, shrugging as I turned myself to face him, grabbing onto his shoulder and pushing him away slightly. His hand around my waist didn't budge, however and instead he looked at me tiredly.

"You need to rest, or something." Murphy insisted, slowly letting his hand fall from my waist.

"No, really. I'm fine." I insisted, trying to walk ahead to where Bellamy and Finn were bickering to prove a point.

What I hadn't been doing however was watching my step, and somehow we all had missed the fact that there were not only dead bodies around us, but in our path.

For the second time in my life I found myself on the ground, having tripped over a dead body. "Not again." I groaned, wanting to get as far away from the body as possible but also incredibly tired, and instead I let myself lay on the ground for a moment as Murphy walked over to me with a smug look on his face. It was his 'I told you so' look, and I was starting to know that look all too well again.

"Where did they come from?" Murphy asked as he shot a glance at Bellamy, who was standing next to my laying form as well.

"The ark." Bellamy deadpanned, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"Well duh." I snapped back, knowing full and well that we all could tell that they came from the ark, and that Murphy had been asking for more of an explanation than that.

Murphy chuckled as he looked back down at me, extending his arm for me to grab. I quickly grabbed it and he yanked me up as Bellamy and Finn started walking ahead. Sterling and Monroe waited for Murphy and I to go in front of them, and we all looked around for the source of the bodies. Not really what I had wanted to do, but as always. No one had asked me.

What we hadn't expected however was a gigantic crater, off an even larger cliff, where it looked like the factory station had landed. It must've landed right at the edge of a cliff, which had only made the drop down worse.

"That's a rough landing." Murphy stated as we all looked over the edge in awe.

Bellamy exhaled deeply before stepping away from the ledge. "There's nothing we can do for these people, we've got to go."

Finn nodded, jumped away from the ledge like it was a disease and started heading in the direction the map lead. Murphy nodded as well, and took a few steps away until he looked back at me, waiting for me to move.

I couldn't however, not with the way Sterling was looking down the cliff. "Sterling?" I said quietly, starting to get the picture. He must've been from Factory station, and all his friends and family must've died. Bummer. Monroe sighed and started walking away as well, and I was about to pull Sterling away when he finally looked closer down the cliff.

"Did you hear that?" Sterling asked, looking at me for a moment before looking down again. Monroe came back to stand next to Sterling, but no one else moved.

"Hey, someone's down there!" Monroe remarked as she looked over the edge again, this time pointing way below us on the cliff's edge. Quickly I took another step closer to the edge, looking over hesitantly.

"Please, help me!" A woman's voice shrieked, and my eyes grew in shock as I watched the poor girl hold onto a tree growing out of the cliff.

"Mel?" Sterling yelled down, hope and concern spreading over his face.

"You know her?" Murphy asked as he walked back, stepping in between Sterling and I to look down. I ignored how he had felt the need to purposely step in between Sterling and I.

"Shut up Murphy, she's my friend. We have to do something." Sterling said as he shrugged off his backpack and walked away from the ledge.

"Like scale down a cliff?" I asked dryly as I took another peak down before watching as Sterling kneeled down by a tree stump, pulling a rope out of his backpack.

"Yes." Sterling replied flatly, hastily tying the rope around the stump before walking back towards us and the cliff.

What I hadn't noticed however was Bellamy and Finn a few feet away, bickering yet again. Sterling tied the rope around him and already had one foot off the edge of the cliff when Bellamy finally yelled, "We're moving out."

Sterling continued however, quickly rappelled down the edge.

"Oh, too late." I huffed to myself as I watched Sterling descend down.

"Yeah well, it looks like we're taking that break after all, huh?" Murphy spat as he looked up from Sterling to give Bellamy a satisfied grin. Bellamy groaned as Finn behind him stomped for a moment. Finn looked like he was about to throw his gun down in frustration. Which honestly I would've preferred. I did not trust that guy with a gun anymore.

"I'm almost there!" Sterling shouted up, "Once I have her, pull us up." He added, and Murphy beside me chuckled.

"Yeah, we know how it works Sterling." I shouted back, growing nervous. I had spent a lot of time with Sterling when Murphy had been exiled, and I didn't like how he could fall to his death. He had always been around Reed and I, helping us collect plants and shrugging indifferently before smiling.

"I'd say he's heard one too many of your motivational speeches." Murphy said as he shot another grin at Bellamy. Murphy was getting a real kick out of Sterling. I think he was just happy someone was rebelling against Bellamy. Someone besides himself or me, of course.

"Shut up Murphy." Bellamy shot back, glaring.

"This is so stressful." I whispered to myself, looking over at the rope and the tree stump. "I'm just gonna." I started as I walked around Monroe, plopping myself onto the ground near the rope. I crossed my legs, "Hold onto this." I finished as I grabbed the rope. Finally, with my hands on the rope was I able to let out a deep breath.

Holding the rope made me feel better. It made me feel even better when Sterling faltered, the rope tightening slightly. I felt like I was doing something, as opposed to you know, just watching in horror. Also I couldn't see off the ledge only a foot away from me, so I didn't have to witness anything.

"What are you doing?" Murphy asked as he walked towards me, smirking slightly. He was still way to proud of himself for making fun of Bellamy.

"It calms me down to hold onto the rope." I said, smiling at him and shrugging. He shook his head, smiling back.

His smile faded quickly, when suddenly the knot around the stump untied, and all of Sterlings weight landed on me holding the rope. I was yanked towards the cliff, my torso following my hands as the rope started heading over the cliff.

The only thing that stopped me from falling completely over the edge was Murphy who had leaped and grabbed onto my legs. With my head and torso hanging over a freaking cliff, and I had suddenly found myself looking way to far down.

"Fuck." Murphy hissed, his grip around my legs tightening as I slid further over the cliff. I was looking down, realizing just how deep the cliff was. Sterling was looking up at me in surprise and horror as he held onto Mel.

From behind me I heard people gather, grabbing the rest of the rope that was still on the ledge. They yanked, and slowly I felt myself get dragged up from the ledge. Murphy's legs ended up on either side of mine and he was able to grab the rope on either side of my hands, almost making me want to cry. I couldn't find it in myself to fully let go of the rope, even though I felt a burning in my hands. Rope burn.

"Oh my god." I whispered, trying to breathe. Murphy's legs came around me closer, and he was pretty much surrounding me completely. I could feel his chest against my back.

Apparently, I hadn't breathed the whole time I was over the ledge, I was too scared. I could feel my hands shaking while holding the rope, the reality sinking in even more as the minutes of trying to pull Sterling and Mel dragged on.

Sterling nearly died. I nearly died. If I hadn't been a weird ass loser, the rope would've just fallen. Sterling would've fallen to his death. I was a fucking life saver. Actually, Murphy was. If he hadn't grabbed me, I would've been the exact opposite of a life saver. A life endangerer? I would've fallen down the cliff with Sterling, and we'd both be pissed off in the other life about it, probably.

It took us all a long time to pull them up and while we were, arrows fell around us. A perfect time for the grounders to attack, really. None of us could exactly move. Monroe and Finn quickly covered us, shooting at the trees. The stress of this whole situation made me want to scream, but I couldn't even find my voice anymore.

Sterling and Mel were almost at the top when an acid fog horn was blown. I didn't know whether or not to be thankful or worried. We could tell grounders quickly left when arrows were no longer being shot, but now we'd have to deal with acid fog.

As Sterling and Mel finally got over the edge, Monroe and Finn helped them up off the ground and away from the ledge. Bellamy let go of the rope, exhaling deeply in exhaustion before standing up as well.

I couldn't stand, Murphy's arms and legs still around me as he held onto the rope on either sides of my hands. With shaking hands I dropped the rope, and Murphy did as well, bringing my back closer into his chest and wrapping his arms around me tightly. I grabbed onto his forearms, keeping them close to me. I finally realized it wasn't just my hands shaking, it was my whole body.

"You're safe. I've got you." Murphy whispered, his head next to mine as he leaned over my shoulder and kissed my cheek, his face lingering next to mine. Murphy rested his head against the side of mine, trying to catch his breath as well.

I had never experienced such fear in my life, and I had been tortured before. And stabbed in the leg. Maybe it was because when I had been tortured, I didn't know what Murphy had meant to me. Now, everything was different. Not to say I ever wanted to die, but now I had even more of a reason to live. Because my asshole of a childhood best friend had my back, quite literally considering my back was being pressed against his chest, and his legs on either side of mine.

* * *

The reason we didn't have to take cover from acid fog was Octavia, June, and Breton. Octavia had blown the horn, and she seemed quite proud of herself. Murphy finally caught his breath, lifted himself up, dragging me up as well and then he brought me away cliffs edge and over to a tree stump, where he sat me back down again.

I looked over at everyone. Monroe had taken an arrow to the thigh, Mel had a broken arm and dozens of scrapes, and even Sterling looked like hell. He had grabbed onto the ledge so hard parts of his fingernails had come off, and all his fingers were bleeding. Gross. I was really starting to dislike this losing a nail concept.

Everyone seemed busy tending to their wounds, or chatting it up. Bellamy hadn't seen his sister or June in so long, I wasn't sure he'd ever let go of them. (Which, Breton was certainly not happy about, but didn't have much of a say in.)

"What were you thinking?" Murphy said bitterly, snapping me out of my trance. He kneeled down in front of me, his face near mine again. "You should've let go. Fuck Sterling, why would you risk your live for his?"

I honestly didn't have an answer. I didn't know why my natural reaction to a situation where a rope was dragging me off a ledge would be to hold on tighter. All I knew was that it had happened. I couldn't regret my choices when Mel and Sterling were smiling so brightly at each other. Sterling was beaming, even though he was in immense pain. He loved her, and whether or not it was love-love, or friendship love, it didn't matter.

"Okay, you don't need to be an asshole." I whispered, still looking Sterling and Mel. They were both so happy. Mel was saying something to Sterling, and he was nodding."You could've just let me die."

Murphy grabbed my chin and turned my head to him so fast I nearly got whiplash. His eyes showed how livid he was at the concept, and I immediately regretted saying it. "No. I couldn't have just let you die. Never." He said, his grip tightening on my chin as his arm shook slightly.

"Thank you." I whispered, and he nodded, his facial expression calming slightly and he started to frown when I looked down, trying to prevent myself from crying. There's something about life or death situations that really turn the waterworks on in my eyes.

"We need to move. The grounders will come back." Breton said loudly, startling me. Murphy sighed deeply, letting go of my chin but still looking at me.

"We need to go, now." June agreed. I looked around as Murphy finally stood up. It appeared the majority of them were going to go back to camp Jaha. I didn't blame them, either. Most of them were seriously injured or in some way needing to go back to protect the injured.

"If we go back, they'll lock us up again." I whispered as I stood up, quickly rubbing my eyes of any possible tears and letting my hands drop to my side. Murphy's arms dropped to his side and he grabbed my hands, holding them in his.

"It's your choice." Murphy whispered back, and staring down at me. "You did nearly fall off a cliff, after all."

"It's okay, I mean scarred for life." I said as I smiled slightly, looking away for a moment before looking back at him. "I can still follow Finn around. Although I feel like we might regret our choice either way." I said, squeezing his hands before letting go. He nodded, grimacing as he backed away from me. I nodded one last time at Murphy and then started walk towards Finn. "Besides, If I learned anything it's that if I'm with you, I won't die." I added, turning to look at Murphy and smile.

He half smiled back, nodding his head before following me. "I was wondering if your dumb-ass would ever learn." He teased, before looking over his shoulder and saying to Bellamy, "Parting, such sweet sorrow."

"Where the hell do you two think you're going?" Bellamy asked, making us both stop in our tracks. I tilted my body to raise a brow at Bellamy.

"To keep the crazy from going crazier." I deadpanned, nodding my head towards Finn.

Bellamy nodded, before shaking his head and taking the machine gun out from around him, carelessly tossing it in Murphy's direction.

"Definitely not something you should be throwing." I hissed and I cringed, glaring at Bellamy for a moment before I noticed the smile grow on Murphy's face. Murphy got his gun, and he was way too damn happy about it. He deserved it though, he had saved my life.

"Watch his back." Bellamy said, looking at Murphy before nodding in Finn's direction. Murphy nodded, turning to follow Finn. I was about to follow as well when Bellamy added, "And Riley, keep them out of trouble."

I snorted, looking back and nodding at Bellamy, "Well, someone's got to."

* * *

It wasn't much longer after the cliff that I had found myself crouched between Finn and Murphy, both of them looking in the viewfinders of their guns at the grounder camp. Not only was I out of the view finding loop, but it had started raining. So we were crouching on the muddy ground. It sucked to crouch with a bad leg.

"I count 26." Finn whispered to Murphy.

"I got 28." Murphy whispered back, and I couldn't help but huff.

"I've got myself. And no gun." I interjected, but they ignored it. Typical. Just dudes being bros while I got to awkwardly sit in the middle like the rose between two thorns.

"These people don't look like warriors, Finn." Murphy sighed, turning to look around me at Finn tiredly. "Just kids, old people. There's nothing big enough to hold our friends."

"They could be underground." Finn shot back, not even bothering to stop looking in his view finder.

"Now you're just grasping at straws." I mumbled, wanting to sit down but not really in the mood to get muddy.

"We will wait till dark, and then we go in." Finn stated, and I turned to look at Murphy, raising a brow.

He shrugged, bringing himself to look into the viewfinder. "You choose for us to go with him." Murphy whispered to me, and I groaned. My hands flew up to my head and I leaned my head on them in defeat.

"Don't remind me." I whispered back, and I looked up. Murphy chuckled, smiling at me before gazing back into the viewfinder.

"Finn, we don't even know if our people are here." Murphy said, and I nodded. Not like Finn saw my nodding, but it made me feel better.

"They're here. Or they were when that grounder took Clarke's watch." Finn said, and I was surprised in his sheer confidence about the situation. I guess when you lose it, you get confident in your insanity.

"You have a lot of faith in a guy with one eye to be telling the truth." I mumbled, shifting slightly to try to get comfortable. It was hopeless though, I wasn't going to get comfortable crouching down like this.

"What if we're too late, huh?" Murphy asked, and I took a sharp inhale. I didn't want to think about being too late, but at the same time I really didn't want Reed to have been tortured for this long.

"How much ammo do we have?" Finn asked, ignoring what Murphy and I had said.

"You know, I think I liked you better as a peacemaker." Murphy replied dryly, lifting his head away from his gun to glare in Finn's direction.

"I think I liked him better before he lost his mind." I mumbled to Murphy, and Murphy's eyes flashed towards me as he smirked.

* * *

The rain stopped soon after it had started, which I was immensely thankful for. We also were able to find a large tree close to the grounder's camp, one where the dirt under it hadn't turned to mud. I had fallen asleep sitting between Finn and Murphy, and woke up to the latter shaking me awake. It must've finally been the middle of the night, meaning the grounders were asleep and we were going to investigate.

Murphy and I hesitantly followed Finn, Murphy in front of me and right behind Finn. As Finn walked past a torch he grabbed it.

"Are you insane?" I hissed, looking around Murphy to Finn. I did not trust Finn with fire right now.

"This isn't part of the plan." Murphy tried reminding Finn, but Finn shook his head.

"I'm changing the plan." Finn remarked as he started running ahead, forcing us to follow or lose him. I kinda wanted to lose him at this point, but I stayed trailing behind Murphy as Finn set the grounder's food on fire and ran to hide behind some crates. There was enough room for all of us behind the crates, but if anyone had actually looked closely they would've seen we were there.

"Distraction? Not bad." Murphy admitted. I wanted to punch Murphy for encouraging him, but Finn started running before I could speak up and we started trailing behind him again.

I was beyond pissed at this point. We kept sneaking around, the boys going a lot faster than I could with my leg. As we ran past a door someone ran out, and before I could look behind me I felt someone grab my arm, yanking me back.

I was beyond furious now. I don't like people touching me and I'd be damned if I let myself get attacked by a grounder again. I might've nearly died yesterday, but no one should ever mess with me. Those lessons Murphy had given me went into over drive, and I lunged at the guy. He hadn't been expecting it, and I caught him extremely off guard. I was able to land a good punch, crunching his nose. He doubled over, letting me go as I started to try to kick him.

By the time Murphy had made his way back to me, the grounder was on the ground groaning. "We need to run." Murphy said, bringing my hand into his. I looked up at him startled before I looked over at Finn.

"We can't. They'll kill our people." Finn hissed as he stormed past us towards the grounder I have just beaten up.

"They'll kill us." Murphy retorted, but Finn wasn't listening anymore. He dragged the grounder up and started pulling him, gun aimed at his head. He sent a bunch of gun shots up in the air, and Murphy and I stopped following for a moment as we watched Finn in fear.

"Who's in charge here?" Finn screamed as he neared the grounder crowd in the center of their town. Slowly and hesitantly we followed behind, not really wanting to follow him anymore, but knowing we couldn't just leave him. I squeezed Murphy's hand tighter, and he responded the same.

A man, with hair somewhat similar to Breton stepped forward. This man had a huge face tattoo, so I couldn't really trust him. Face tattoos are never a good idea. Although his was kinda tasteful, I suppose.

"Our leader isn't here. You can deal with me." The grounder said confidently.

"Nobody has to get hurt. We just want our people back." Finn replied, and I didn't need to see his face to know he was doing that crazy eyes thing again.

"We don't have your people." The grounder said, staring intently at Finn.

"Then you wouldn't mind if we looked around." Finn remarked, aiming his gun at their temporary leader. The grounder nodded, and spoke in grounder to the rest. By morning Finn had managed to corral all of the grounders in the animal pen in the center of the town. Once the grounders were all huddled, he ran off and barged through doors, tearing the town apart.

"Finn has lost it, Murph." I whispered as we both stared at the grounders, making sure they wouldn't move.

I didn't blame them if they had wanted to run away from Finn. Hell, I knew the guy and I wanted to run away.

"Whenever Finn gets close, stand behind me." Murphy whispered back. "Good job beating that guy up, also. Damn." He added, giving me a quick half smile before staring at the grounders again. I couldn't help but smile back. He may have saved me from dying yesterday, but I wasn't weak. I could hand out my own.

"See, we don't have your people." The grounder yelled as Finn ran past us, making me jump. Finn didn't listen, and instead continued tearing through the place. Finn suddenly stopped moving.

"You find something?" Murphy yelled, his gaze never leaving the grounders.

"Finn?" I yelled as well, turning to look at Finn. Whatever he saw was making him distraught, but with his state of mind at that moment it could've been literally anything. Finn was at the point where he could've seen a bird with Clarke's coloring and would've said it was a sign.

"Finn, answer me. Are you all right?" Murphy yelled, and I couldn't help but scoff.

"We already know he's not alright." I whispered, motioning towards the corral in front of us.

Murphy turned his head for a moment to look back at Finn, and within that second a grounder got up. "Hey, on your knees." Murphy yelled, getting closer and pointing the gun at the guy until he sat back down.

Finn ran past us, and Murphy instinctively put his hand out in front of me to separate me from being close to Finn. Finn jumped over the corral's wall, a jacket in hand. He threw the jacket down at the grounders feet, crazy eyes to the extreme.

"What have you done with them?" Finn screamed, raising his gun at the grounder.

"Hey Finn." Murphy said, stepping in front of me and getting a little closer to Finn and reaching out for him. "Finn, come on."

"Their clothes are here!" Finn screamed back, his eyes and gun still trained on the grounder. "You killed them!" Finn continued, as his aim faltered slightly towards the other grounders.

A few tried to get up in fear, causing Murphy to ready his gun as well. The leader however shouted something at them, and they all sat back down. "Your friends are not here. I saw one Octavia, but she was alone until she met up with a June, and Breton." It was clear the leader knew who Breton was, but didn't particularly like him.

"These people are scavengers, Finn." Murphy reasoned, and I nodded. Once again, it wasn't like Finn had seen me nod, but it made me feel better.

"They probably just found the stuff, Finn." I tried coaxing him as well, but instead of calming him down Finn got more worked up. He grabbed the lady closest to him, pushing her into the ground. He stepped on her, and she started to scream.

"Finn!" I screamed, horror washing over me.

"Stop! Stop, listen to us!" Murphy yelled, reaching out and grabbing Finn.

Finn yanked his arm away, "Get off of me!" He hissed as he glared at Murphy for a moment before bringing his attention back to the woman who was still under his boot.

"What the hell Finn." I hissed, about to just raise my arms in defeat and leave.

"Finn, don't do this." Murphy yelled desperately. "Man, let's just walk out of here while we still can, okay?"

"Finn, please don't do this to us." I said as I stepped closer to Murphy's back. Finn was going to get us both killed, and I didn't really want to die. Let alone any kind of death the grounders had to offer.

Finn exhaled deeply before getting off the woman and jumping over the corral's wall. Murphy backed up, his hands ready to shoot out to protect me if it came down to it. Finn instead started walking manically in a circle, and I was surprised he wasn't talking to himself too.

"He told us our friends were here, why would he do that?" Finn finally whispered, sounding like he was about to have a break down. To be honest he probably was about to have a break down.

"The guy with one eye?" Murphy asked, annoyance dripping in his words.

"You had a gun to his head, Finn." I added, moving a little bit closer to Murphy's back.

"A man with one eye?" The leader spoke up, surprised. "You saw Delano. A snake, a thief. He and his men were cast out. You are his revenge."

"That sounds about right." I deadpanned. I always knew I would be used as revenge. Don't ask why, it just seemed like something that would happen to me.

"Okay?" Murphy said, looking from the grounder back to Finn. "We need to go, now."

Finn was about to look up at us and nod, when suddenly a guy jumped up and over the corral wall, trying to make a run for it. Still didn't blame him. Screams erupted as the leader tried to make them sit down, but when Finn started shooting, none of them seemed to be able to stay down.

Murphy took a few steps back, pushing me back behind him farther as well in an attempt to make some distance between me and Finn. Murphy tried to grab Finn's coat, to yank him to follow us, but as more people jumped up, Finn shot more.

I wanted to throw up. Finn had just shot down kids, and old people. Murphy kept screaming Finn's name, and I was just plain screaming. Finally I reached around Murphy's outstretched arm and tried to pull Finn away as well. I started screaming stop instead, but he still didn't stop.

He didn't stop until he saw three silhouettes come out through the trees. It was Clarke, Octavia, and Bellamy. Octavia came running, and it was clear she had known one of the kids that had died. Rough for her. Alternatively you have got to give her credit for making friends so easily.

Finn didn't watch her, his eyes still transfixed on Clarke as she walked towards him. Murphy and I let go of Finn, and Murphy turned to his body to face mine before looking back again.

"I found you." Finn said, taking a step closer to Clarke. Fear spread over her face and she shook her head, taking a step away from him. Finn had lost his mind over her and she had wanted nothing to do with it.


	4. Spacewalker Part One

**Happy Friday!**  
 **Thanks to the guest for reviewing. And for those of you unaware, part of this chapter was posted a few days earlier on my tumblr. I made a tumblr page for this story. The link is in my profile, or just look for rileyparkerneedstoshutup on tumblr.**

* * *

I knew it wasn't any of my business, but I still couldn't help but feel somewhat bad for Finn. Yeah, he freaking massacred a village, but he did it for Clarke. Not saying that's a good reason to kill, but she could've at least spoken to him. Or even have looked in his direction.

Murphy and I had went back to camp, expecting to be locked up again. Instead to our surprise, we were told that all our crimes were pardoned. June was pissed because they weren't being friendly to Breton, but I doubt she expected them to accept him. They kept him locked in a room for the majority of the time, and therefore June stayed in that room by his side.

I saw Sterling around camp every once in a while, always walking with Mel. I would've found it adorable if it hadn't meant that he wasn't hanging out with me. I mean, I saved the dudes life. You'd think he'd at least say thanks, or something.

Murphy and I were beyond ecstatic about being pardoned, and I was in such a good mood that I even helped Murphy recover Monty's still from the dropship. Within two days we were making our own alcohol. Not really the smartest thing for two teens to being doing, but I mean. We both had nearly died at least five times since landing on earth. We deserved some alcohol.

We had kept to ourselves for the most part. But I couldn't help but wonder where Clarke and Co. were on making plans to go into mount weather. Apparently, Breton was right. Mountain people from under mount weather had taken our people.

I had nearly jumped Clarke to find out if Reed was okay. She told me Reed appeared to be happy enough for the time being, and that Monty was with her. Thank god, am I right? At least they had each other. Besides, if I knew anything about Reed, it was that she made friends in odd places. Maybe it was because she was friendly. At least that's what I had to keep telling myself whenever I thought about her; that she was okay and everything was fine.

After dinner one night, Murphy and I were left to our own devices. At this point I already had three drinks, so everything was just dandy in my mind. I wanted to giggle, about nothing. Murphy and I walked around the campsite, and my eyes laid on Clarke and Finn sitting together awkwardly.

"Look." I said, whacking Murphy in the stomach with my free hand that wasn't holding a drink. He snorted and moved away from where my hand was before looking over. He chuckled at Clarke and Finn sitting like that together.

"They look like they're having fun." Murphy said sarcastically.

"Let's diffuse the tension." I exclaimed, having way too much confidence whilst drunk. I started heading over to them before Murphy even responded, and I looked back for a moment while walking to see him shake his head before taking another sip and following me. He smiled at me, and the world felt right.

Not to say the world hadn't felt right before then. I was drunk though, so leave me alone.

I plopped myself down in the chair next to Clarke, probably way to hard. But everything and everyone seemed fine to me. Clarke looked at me confused, and then rolled her eyes when she noticed Murphy walk around the table and sit next to Finn.

"Check it out. Salvaged Monty's still from the dropship." Murphy said as he lifted his cup while smirking, and then taking another swig.

"The guy sure knew how to liquor." I retorted as I looked down inside my cup, hastily swirling it around for my own amusement. Yes, in retrospect I know now that I hadn't said a complete sentence. I was drunk, okay?

"Now, I guess you know, if they could just salvage Monty." Murphy joked, and I snorted before laughing probably a little bit too much.

"It's funny because it's true." I said as I leaned on the table for a moment, looking at Clarke next to me. She hadn't found it funny, and when I turned my gaze to Finn I noticed he hadn't either.

They needed to learn how to laugh at life, I swear those two were more serious than a heart attack. Which I've heard is a very serious cardiac situation that should not be taken lightly.

"Okay." Murphy said, trying to clear the awkward tension. "You tell her we're cleared?" Murphy asked as he looked at Finn. Finn looked down before shaking his head.

"Pardoned of all crimes, even the dumb earth ones." I added, raising my cup happily. I hadn't ever really done anything on earth that required the extra pardoning. Besides poisoning someone, and I guess by not telling them Murphy killed Connor I became an accomplice. So I guess I had needed that extra pardoning.

"I'll cheers to that." Murphy said as he raised his cup towards mine, and we hit our cups together before bringing them back to our mouths and taking another drink. Someone really should've already cut me off at that point.

"We did what he had to do." Finn whispered, looking sadly at Clarke. "I've got to go." He continued as he jumped out of his seat and stalked away.

Murphy whistled, and I just let my mouth drop as I looked from Finn leaving back to Clarke.

"Trouble in paradise?" Murphy asked, and I couldn't stop myself from smiling and looking at him. He was also smiling, and seemed to be enjoying himself as much as I was.

"Just because they pardoned both of you, doesn't mean I have to." Clarke snapped bitterly as she avoided our eye contact and looked into the distance where Finn had once been.

"Meow." I whispered, bring the cup close to my mouth. "You don't need to be so catty." I took another sip as Murphy laughed at my remark.

"Clarke." Raven said as she walked towards us, and sat down in the spot Finn had just left. "Beat it you two." She added, not even looking at us.

"Well then. Have a good one." Murphy mumbled as he got up from his spot.

I didn't feel like moving, and just smiled from Raven to Clarke as Murphy smiled and walked around the table towards me. He grabbed the hand that was on the table and yanked me up towards him. "We're not welcome anymore, dumbass." He whispered to me as he let go of my hand, snaking his arm around my waist and pulling me away from the table.

"You're not welcome anymore." I snapped back, resting my head on his upper arm and letting him lead me away.

"Well, you're not wrong." Murphy replied, looking around at the disgruntled people as we made our way back into Alpha station. They all hated us, because in their minds we were still criminals.

"I wanted to hear about mount weather." I whined, and stopped walking apburtly, lifting my head away from Murphy as I realized how annoying I sounded. Murphy's hand dropped away from my waist. "Did you get me drunk?" I asked and he snorted, finishing his cup and grabbing mine, finishing it in one swig as well.

"If I had been trying to, I'd say I accomplished it." Murphy teased, looking me up and down.

"What are you trying to pull?" I asked as he stacked our two cups together and grabbed my hand, dragging me back to our room.

They had given us a room, which was more like a broom closet. It had a bunk bed, which I had claimed the top bunk. That was literally all there was in the room, and honestly there was not enough room for much of anything else.

"I don't need to get you drunk to pull anything." Murphy reminded me as he dropped my hand and opened the door to our room, stepping aside to let me walk through. I walked through hesitantly.

We had been slightly distant since we had gotten back to camp a few days ago. Maybe it was because we had both been so tired, but even when we had the energy we just went on silly journey's through the woods, him watching as I ran around ahead.

No funny business, just us acting like the kids we both were before we got arrested. I had always loved running on the ark, there was something so freeing about it. Murphy had seemed to enjoy watching me run around, probably because I grinned like an idiot when I ran. We were in a bizarre position where we kept calling each other best friends, but it would randomly take a turn for something more. And each time, before it could really turn into something more, it stopped.

"Oh, Really? Then why haven't you?" I remarked as I stopped in the middle of the room, contemplating whether or not I could manage climbing up to the top bunk. The words had slipped out of my mouth before I could even understand what I had been saying.

"Oh I'm sorry." Murphy snapped back sarcastically as he closed the door behind him. "I didn't realize I was supposed to steal your innocence the first chance I got." He said as he walked around me to stand a few feet away facing me.

I could feel my face heat up as he smirked, and I looked down trying not to laugh, or cry. I was really drunk.

"I don't want to have this conversation right now." I realized, my face feeling so warm under his gaze as I continued staring down at the floor between us.

Murphy chuckled as he took a few steps closer to me, the gap between us shrinking. "You're so dumb sometimes." He whispered, and I could feel his breath on my face as he stopped only inches away from me.

"Hey." I hissed, looking up at his smirking face. "You're as dumb as me, jerk face."

He chuckled, looking down at the floor for a moment as he nodded before looking back up at me. "I know." He said, a smirk coming back onto his face.

We stared at each other, and it felt like both hours and only seconds went by before he closed the gap completely between us. One of his hands flew to my neck as I reached and wrapped my arms around his neck. His other hand went to my lower back, pressing my body into his as he pulled my head towards his, our lips colliding.

I didn't want the kiss to ever end, but as it always seemed to, it ended too quickly. I tried catching my breath as I felt him let go of me, and I unwrapped my arms away from his neck as well. "Go to sleep, Rhy." He whispered as he took a step away from me.

"Or what?" I retorted, turning away from him as I tried taking my boots off. He was right, I needed to go to sleep. Before I made a fool of myself or something.

"Or I'll steal your innocence." Murphy joked again, surprising me so much I dropped my boot on the floor and spun around to look at him. He started laughing at me when he saw the surprised look on my face, enjoying every second of teasing me.

It was clear that he enjoyed making sexual jokes just to startle me. But whether or not he meant them was another story entirely.

"Fuck you, Murphy." I snapped as I threw my other boot off in annoyance. I was drunk, and kind of felt like my heart was being toyed with.

"Well, that's what I'm getting at Rhy." He continued playing, shaking his feet out of his boots, and turning off the lights before starting to climb up the bunk bed. I could feel my face getting red again as I watched him take my bed. "Take the bottom Rhy, you can't climb up here." He finished as he sprawled himself on my bed. I hadn't moved, and just stood there next to my dropped shoes.

I had wanted to prove him wrong, but I didn't think I could take the embarrassment either way. Either I tried and didn't get up the bed's ladder, and he laughed, or I got up there and he would make a joke about me crawling into bed with him. It was a lose-lose situation for me, and I quietly grumbled as I threw myself on his bed.

After a few moments of being moody, I let myself enjoy his scent surrounding me. I crawled under the covers, smelling his pillow. I had just been about to fall asleep nice and peacefully when I heard Murphy mumble, "Just how I like my girls." He whispered, and I could tell he was about to say something to bug me again, "On the bottom."

A moment of silence went through the air as he waited for me to respond. And boy, did I respond. "Shut up Murphy!" I yelled, bringing my legs up and kicking the bottom of the mattress. He erupted in laughter as I shook his bed with my feet.

Once he finally stopped laughing, I stopped pressing my feet into his mattress. I turned over to face the wall and closed my eyes. Once again I was nearly lulled into sleep when Murphy whispered, "Sleep well, Rhy." I smiled at his words, and let the good buzz of being drunk wash over me and I drifted into sleep.

* * *

Clarke and Co. left the next morning, and didn't come back till nightfall. When they returned, they also had Jaha. Which really confused me, because as far as I had known they left him up on the ark to die.

Murphy and I avoided any conversation about the night before. I think we were both too scared of how the other would react to even brush the topic. We had both had a little too much to drink the night before. I don't think either of us really knew how to go from being best friends to something more, and were both too afraid to find out. Or even if the other person genuinely wanted to. It was all a hot mess, really.

Everyone in the camp avoided us like the plague except June, but June was also an outsider in their mind. While Clarke and Co. had been gone that day, June had tried to teach anyone who would listen how to speak grounder, but it ended up with only her and I sitting at a table. Even Murphy didn't want to listen, and instead went off to do whatever guys do alone. I don't know, don't ask.

That night after we had seen Jaha; Murphy and I had laid in our beds for a long time. Not really saying anything of much importance, simply coming up with bizarre ways that Jaha could've landed himself on earth. There was something so soothing about looking up at the ceiling and hearing him speak. After all the shit we had been through, we were still the same two kids are heart. I mean, we were really fucked up now, and dealing with like hormonal urges, but that's beside the point.

Now that Jaha was back, he appeared beyond ready to continue being chancellor again. I didn't really trust him, but then again I never had. The asshole locked me up in the skybox for trying to feed myself. The next morning after everyone had eaten breakfast, Jaha called us all to attention. I hated being told be pay attention to someone.

"I think you've all heard the rumors, and unfortunately it's true. The grounders are coming." Jaha said, and my stomach dropped. No one had told me these rumors. I had thought we were still trying to get our friends out of mount weather. I turned my head to look at Murphy, and it was obvious no one had told him either.

We were always the last ones to know what's going on.

"We have a difficult decision to make. Thankfully chancellor Jaha has found his way back to us, and we're discussing all options." Abby said from beside Jaha, giving him skeptical glances every now and then.

"But to be safe, you need to pack. Now. Whatever you can carry, we may need to leave at a moment's notice." Jaha said confidently, and I watched Abby tense up.

I groaned. "I don't have jack shit to pack. This is dumb." I whispered to Murphy as I looked over at him.

"Are you worried about the grounders?" He whispered back, looking into my eyes and waiting for a reaction.

"I'm just about always worried about the grounders." I admitted, looking away from his intense stare.

"A city of light. It's across the dead zone." Jaha said, and I frowned.

"Where do you think he hears about this shit?" Murphy asked, nudging me slightly to get me to smile.

"The voices in his head, probably." I replied shrugging and nudging him back.

"I've got faith." Jaha said, trying to be a preacher or something.

"And I've got too much time on my hands." I whispered, raising a brow at Jaha. I still had no clue what I was going to do that day, besides worry over the grounders.

"And I've got to deal with you." Murphy added, leaning into me again so I would look at him.

"Don't act like you're upset about that." I retorted, looking up at him, my brow still raised. He smiled at me and I felt his hand make its way into mine. I couldn't help but smile at the gesture before looking back at Jaha.

"Did we come all this way to die tomorrow?" Jaha's motivational speeches were a lot like Bellamy's; really boring and not even remotely applicable to me.

"I never intended to come all this way." I whispered, shaking my head. It hadn't been my choice to be thrown in a dropship a few months ago.

"No decision has been made." Abby interjected, glaring slightly at Jaha.

"It sure sounds like Jaha's decided." Murphy whispered, and I nodded before letting out a deep sigh.

* * *

During the day, Clarke and Co. left again. Murphy had been given a gun and told to do rounds, so yet again I ended up all alone. I ended up finding June, and we commiserated together. They apparently had nearly tortured Breton, and she had to watch. From what I could gather, she was having a really bad week.

Ever since that day when she had pulled me off the ground and ushered me into the dropship, worried about my wellbeing after Murphy had been nearly hanged, I found myself liking her more and more. She may have had a sketchy-at-best choice in men, but she really had a heart of gold. Such a shame that the kindest hearts have to go through some of the worst shit.

Breton had taught her how to use a sword to protect herself, and she was more than happy to distract herself all day by teaching me. I figured I would need all the practice I could get if the grounders really were coming.

Clarke made quite the entrance that night, being escorted by two grounders on horses. To make matters even more concerning, the grounders didn't leave. Apparently, they wanted Finn to pay for his crimes. Sad, but understandable. He had massacred kids and old dudes.

Raven didn't seem to agree however, and ended up punching someone in the face over it and had to be practically carried away. Clarke and Co. were nothing if not cheap entertainment.

I had found Murphy finishing his shift a little later after the fight. He seemed happy to see me, and quickly ushered me away from the camp's walls.

"There are thousands of grounders out there somewhere." He mumbled as his fingers intertwined with mine. "I got to stare at trees for the whole day, my eyes fucking hurt."

"June taught me how to fight with a sword." I said excitedly, watching his face for a reaction. He smiled and looked at me with those blue eyes that did weird things to my heart.

I was starting to think I had a heart murmur or something, it couldn't be right to feel this way around someone. Sometimes around Murphy I felt like my heart was going to explode out of my chest. But it hurt even worse when he wasn't around. It was the worst, actually.

"And how did you do with a sword, gonna beat up any more grounders?" Murphy teased, his smile growing slightly.

"Well, I can safely say that swords probably aren't my thing." I hesitantly said as I looked away nervously. I had accidentally wielded it wrong and ended up almost hitting my neck with the sharp end.

"How badly did you mess up?" Murphy asked through his own laughter, squeezing my hand even tighter.

"I almost slit my own throat." I mumbled, and Murphy's laughter died down quickly. He stopped walking, tugging me to face him.

"Are you okay?" He asked, tilting his head down to get a better look at my throat as his free hand went to touch my neck.

"I said almost." I hissed back as I quickly pushed his hand away from my neck. "It's going to take a lot more than my own stupidity to kill me."

Murphy smiled as he looked down at the ground for a moment, and then looked back at me. "I sure hope so."

"Don't worry. June is going to have me try arrows next. At least then it'll be hard for me to shoot myself." I huffed, before grinning and adding, "Other people on the other hand, watch out."

"What is it with you and that girl?" Murphy asked as I turned and we continued walking.

"She picked me up off the ground after you got nearly got hanged." I admitted, and I felt him go tense next to me, squeezing my hand tighter. "I understand her. I know what it feels like to have a friend you'd do anything for." I continued as I looked down at the ground.

"You astound me sometimes, Rhy." Murphy whispered, giving my hand another squeeze.

"Damn right, I'm astounding." I whispered back, looking at him as he chuckled at my response and shook his head. We continued walking outside, enjoying each other's company when I spotted Finn.

Finn no longer had crazy eyes, but damn was he depressed. I couldn't help but feel somewhat bad for him. He had just wanted Clarke back. Murphy noticed me staring at Finn, and our direction of walking changed towards him.

"Hey, man." Murphy said as he dropped my hand and plopped himself on the metal framing next to Finn. "Byrne actually gave me a gun. Guess we really are screwed, huh?" He said as he motioned to the gun swung over his back. Finn didn't respond, and Murphy sighed. "Look, we kicked their asses last time. We'll do it again."

"We didn't." I whispered, and Murphy looked at me exhaustedly. "What? It's true. Raven was the one who set them on fire."

"And a lot of people died." Finn added morosely, making me regret even saying anything. Damn could that boy take a conversation and make it even more depressing.

"That's how war works." I whispered looking down at the ground awkwardly and biting my lip about how awkward the conversation had become.

Luckily I didn't have to stand around awkwardly as I heard the crunching of ground near me. I looked up to see Clarke and Bellamy swaggering over to us, their eyes trained on Finn.

"We're reinforcing our defenses." Bellamy said as they came to a halt. "Doubles on the perimeter. No ones getting past that wire."

Damn Bellamy and his confident speeches.

"I'll see where they're thin." Finn mumbled as he stood up and went to walk away. Bellamy quickly blocked his path.

"No, you should head inside. B corridor would be easier to defend, if it comes to that." Bellamy said, trying to come up with a good excuse as to why Finn should be inside.

"I'm not going to hide." Finn retorted, looking from Bellamy to Clarke.

"Right now, we have to think about keeping you safe. I'm going to talk to Lincoln and Breton." Clarke said, her confidence wavering slightly. This whole conversation was clearly awkward for everyone involved, let alone Murphy and I.

"Come on." Bellamy commanded, and Finn sighed before nodding and following Bellamy inside. Clarke slowly left after them.

"Have any orders for us, Princess?" Murphy yelled to Clarke as he stood up, walking the few steps to stand next to me.

"Stay away from me." Clarke hissed as she turned to look at us.

"I was just trying to be helpful." Murphy replied, and I didn't need to see his face to know he was frowning.

"You both were with him at the village." Clarke said, pointing at us.

"We tried to stop him." Murphy replied sourly.

"Not hard enough." Clarke spat back, turning herself and starting to leave again.

"Screw you, Clarke. You weren't there with Finn while he was looking for you." I cringed slightly at how weird that sentence sounded, "He was fucking psycho."

"Yeah." Murphy piped in, "You wanna start blaming people, Clarke? He was out there looking for you."

Clarke had stopped in her tracks at Murphy's words, but didn't look back. She quickly started walking again, storming into the building.

I let out a deep exhale as I continued to look at where Clarke had been. She hadn't felt the fear we did. She didn't know how close Finn had been to accidentally shooting one of us. Murphy stood next to me in silence, and I knew he was probably going through every scenario in his head too.

Unease only grew between us as lights started going up in the trees around camp, and creepy chanting was started echoing through the air.

"Murphy." I whispered as I looked around at all the trees, and the lights. "I think I'm really scared now."

"Don't be." He replied, but I could hear that slight quiver in his voice. He was scared too. So instead of trying to reassure me, he enveloped me in his arms. My arms wrapped around him as well as I buried my face in his chest.

I think we both needed that. We didn't really have any friends to pat us on the back and tell us it'd be fine. Or give us a hug. Just about everyone in camp acted more like they'd stab us before hugging us. So, just as we had when we were kids, we became each others support for everything. I knew I could rely on Murphy, and he knew he could rely on me. And that was enough for both of us.


	5. Spacewalker Part Two

**Happy Murphiley Monday!**  
 **This chapter is kind of short, but hot damn is it important. The next chapter is Survival Of the Fittest, AKA Daddy Jaha takes the kids on an awkward day trip to his son's grave. Super fun, right? RIGHT. That chapter will be out on Friday. I will be posting a sneak preview of this chapter on the tumblr I made for this story. Link is in my profile, or search rileyparkerneedstoshutup on tumblr.**

* * *

Right after Clarke went to see Lincoln and Breton, they had finally let Breton walk around freely. Breton and June had found Murphy and I still hugging it out. I immediately knew it was her when I felt someone wrap their arms around both of us.

"Join in, Breton." June whispered, motioning towards him. I didn't need to see him to know this whole situation was making him uncomfortable. But if there was one thing I knew about him, it was that he'd do anything for June.

Murphy had wished he wouldn't, however. When I felt more arms come around us, Murphy tensed, letting out a deep exhale in annoyance. I doubt he wanted Breton anywhere near touching him, let alone me.

"Okay, we're done here." I said as I tried to push myself away from Murphy, to get everyone off of us. I wasn't going to subject Murphy that for too long.

June laughed and stepped away, Breton walking around Murphy and I to stand next to her.

"This must be really hard for you. I'm sorry." Breton said in that deep baritone, looking from Murphy to myself.

"Thanks, Breton." I said, nodding at him.

"Blood must have blood." June mumbled as she looked up in the air.

"I'm sorry, what?" I fumbled, looking from June to Breton. I was starting to think maybe she was crazy, or something.

"Jus drein jus daun, what they are saying." June said as her eyes fell from the sky back to me. "It means blood must have blood."

"Juice?" Murphy whispered to me, and I looked at him for a moment before shrugging.

"They won't attack tonight." Breton said confidently as he looked around us at the trees. "We should all rest. Tomorrow holds no garentees."

I frowned at Breton, a lump growing in my chest. I wasn't quite sure how I was supposed to sleep after hearing him say that, but Murphy wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led us back to our room anyways.

As we took off our boots together, I could feel myself shaking. I could still faintly hear them chanting outside, and I kind of wanted to cry. 'Tomorrow holds no garentees'

I could feel myself being brought back into my memories, to when I had been in their camp. Hearing Jasper's screams as they sliced me up. It was like I was suddenly reliving it.

"Hey." Murphy said as he turned off the light and grabbed my hand, leading me towards the bed. "Just like when we were kids, right?" He said as he laid down on the bed, pulling me down with him. He wrapped his arms around me tightly, and as I turned my body to the side to sleep, his body followed mine. His whole body enveloped around mine as I nearly curled up into a ball. "We are going to be okay, Riley." He murmured at he brushed the hair away from my face, giving me a quick kiss on the temple. "We're going to be okay." He repeated as he laid his head down behind mine.

I wasn't sure if he was trying to reassure me or himself at that point, but I was so glad he kept talking. Hearing him repeat that we were going to be okay made me feel like maybe, just maybe, we would be okay. I tried to stay in that moment as long as I could. To try to remember his body pressed against mine and his strong arms around me. That night I had no clue what the next day would bring, and I wanted to remember that moment forever.

To have someone care enough about you even to talk you to sleep. It was something I had taken for granite as a kid. I had thought all my problems on the ark were huge. I thought not eating enough, and having a dad who wanted to kick me more than hug me was life or death. In retrospect, my childhood was full of life or death situations. But I never really had to face them alone, and that makes all the difference in the world. I knew as I drifted off to sleep that night that if Murphy hadn't existed, I would've lost my mind years ago. He kept me sane, and that's something worth fighting for.

* * *

We woke up the next day to a pounding on our door. Neither one of us wanted to leave the comfort of the bed, but after five minutes of consistent knocking, Murphy groaned and took his arms away from me, crawling over me and jumping out of bed. He opened the door as I sat up in bed, trying to see who it was.

"This better be fucking good, Raven." Murphy hissed as he opened the door to let her through.

Talk about awkward moments with Raven. She gave our beds one look, and I could just tell she knew we had slept in the same bed last night.

"Cozy room." Raven mumbled as she turned around, looking at every corner.

"Yeah it's like living in a mansion." I said sarcastically, throwing the covers off my legs and placing them on the floor. "I hope you did wake us up to talk about decorating."

"No, I didn't." Raven admitted, shaking her head. "We need the man power at the dropship. We are going to try to hide Finn there until we can figure it all out. The grounders had left sometime last night, so now is our only chance." Raven quickly spat out, looking at Murphy.

"Yeah, we'll meet you there in a couple hours." Murphy grunted before he yawned and started to stretch.

"We?" Raven asked, looking from Murphy to myself.

"Two for one deal, Raven." I said, shrugging. There was no way in hell I was going to let Murphy skip off into the woods without me.

She rolled her eyes, seemingly upset about it. "Yeah, that's how Finn and I were." She mumbled as she stalked out of the open door, leaving us.

Hearing her say that made me feel immensely sorry for her. The way she had looked at Murphy and I all those times suddenly made sense. Finn had been her best friend.

The guilt for her was what made me agree to go. I had considered not, and thought about finding a way to make Murphy stay, (Which honestly wouldn't have been that hard) but instead I groaned and put on my boots. Murphy mimicked my actions, and within the hour we were sneaking out the back gate and heading to the dropship.

Unease spread through me the whole walk to the dropship. Call me skeptical, but I couldn't really imagine Raven wanting us there. I couldn't really imagine any of them wanting us there, actually.

"I have a bad feeling about this." I mumbled as we made our way through our old camp's gate. It was so quiet through the woods, and it spooked me out even more.

"You always do." Murphy replied, his gun ready for anything.

"And I'm almost always right." I said, which brought a smile to his face. He walked into the dropship before me, opening the curtains carefully.

"Hey, hey!" He said nervously as he faced Bellamy who had his gun drawn at us. Murphy lifted his hands and remained standing right in front of me.

"Murphy? Riley?" Bellamy asked, which honestly was quite dumb. Who else had our faces? "What are you two doing here?" Bellamy asked as he slowly lowered his gun.

"I believe we were invited." Murphy said as he nodded his head slightly towards Raven.

"You mean you were invited." I mumbled, looking around from Murphy to Raven.

"Two for one deal, Rhy." Murphy hissed back, glancing at me out of the corner of his eyes as he dropped his hands and let me pass him. I quickly took a few steps away, aiming my body to look at all three of them.

"I thought we could use an extra gun." Raven said shrugging at Bellamy.

Bellamy sighed for a moment before looking from Murphy to myself one more time. "Might be a good idea."

"Finn should've been right behind you." Raven stammered as she looked at both of us, hoping we knew where he was.

"Don't worry, the spacewalker's gonna be fine." Murphy retorted, walking away from the curtain and closer to me, in the middle of the dropship.

As if on queue, the curtain flew open and Finn burst in carrying Clarke. My eyes grew wide as I saw the blood dripping from her head. Knowing from personal experience, head injuries sucked.

"What happened?" Bellamy asked as Finn started to lay Clarke down.

"A grounder hit her in the head." Finn stammered, his hands about to fly up to her head. "I need a bandage, a wrap, anything." Finn continued.

"Only damn thing I'm going to be good for." I whispered to myself as I ran across the room and snatched a rag, heading quickly back over to where Clarke was laid down.

"Hold her head." Bellamy said as I dropped down to Clarke, letting Bellamy put her head on my lap. "Clarke, can you hear me?" Bellamy asked, bringing his head close to hers. She let out an audible groan. "Just rest." Bellamy whispered to her, and my attention was taken away from Clarke for a moment as Finn stormed back out of the dropship, Raven at his heels.

It took them a while to come back into the dropship, and once they did, Raven demanded to take over babying Clarke. I was more than happy to oblige, and gently put Clarke's head on the floor, giving Raven the rag. Bellamy motioned for Murphy to follow him outside, and as Bellamy headed out, Murphy nodded for me to follow.

Once outside, I got the pleasure of standing awkwardly next to Bellamy and Murphy as they both looked around, guns at the ready. Within minutes, Bellamy had spotted a grounder running through the woods, and told us to take cover behind a large overturned tree stump. Bellamy himself hid behind the other stump, and suddenly I was having major deja vu. They both were looking through their viewfinders, and I was just stuck in the middle.

"Why doesn't anyone ever give me a gun? I could be helpful." I mumbled as I sat down completely next to Murphy. I wasn't going to be able to safely peek my head out without a viewfinder.

"You don't know the first thing about guns." Murphy said, sighing. "Besides, you already stick your neck out too far for people. I can't have you wielding a gun. You'd get yourself shot."

It took a moment for me to respond. "That's rude." I whispered, and he turned his head to look at me for a moment, brow raised. "I didn't say it wasn't true." I added, and he smirked before going back to looking in the viewfinder.

"Retreat!" Bellamy yelled to us, and Murphy took no time in yanking me up with him, carefully holding the gun as we ran inside, ready to shoot.

Raven and Finn seemed surprised by us coming inside, but neither said a word to us. There was silence outside, and I found myself sitting down near Raven and Clarke, waiting for anything.

Hesitantly both Bellamy and Murphy stuck their heads out, trying to see what was going on. Murphy nearly ducked out of the dropship completely, which made me beyond uneasy.

"They are not moving any closer." Murphy said to Bellamy.

"Stop sticking your whole body out the freaking door." I yelled to him, and he quickly pulled himself back in to glare at me for a moment, before looking over at Bellamy. Bellamy had pulled his head back in as well.

"They are staying out of range. They'll be waiting until its dark." Bellamy grumbled, looking down at Clarke as she woke up.

"If we hit them now, we take them by surprise." Murphy suggested, and I groaned. The last thing I wanted them to do was attack.

"We don't even know how many of them are out there." Clarke finally pipped up, sitting up and rubbing her head.

Raven, Finn and I stood up as Clarke did, and Murphy made his way closer to me.

"I'm not hearing any better ideas, Clarke." Murphy spat, standing right next to me and looking at her.

"We'll give them something." Raven said, and I looked at her confused.

"A piece of our mind?" I suggested as I took a step away from her and one closer to Murphy.

"All they want is Finn." Bellamy reminded her. All eyes were trained on Raven now, waiting for her to tell us her brilliant plan. And what she said next shook my world apart.

"Finn wasn't the only one at the village." Raven spat as she looked over at me and Murphy.

I could feel my stomach dropping, and if I had eaten more that morning I definitely would've vomited.

"What are you talking about?" Clarke asked, her eyes widening at what Raven was hinting at.

"Raven, hold on." Bellamy added, and my mind went into overdrive.

"Oh, hell no." I hissed as I made sure I was blocking Raven from getting anywhere near Murphy.

"Raven, I came here to protect him." Murphy said offendedly, "You were the one who wanted me to come. You." Murphy stopped speaking, realizing that it must've been her plan all along. "That's why you asked only me to come along?" Murphy asked, but he didn't need Raven to answer to know it was true.

"Enough grounders saw him. They'd believe he was the shooter." Raven spat, looking from Clarke to Bellamy.

"You, You." I fumbled over my words, backing myself into Murphy to make even more distance between Raven and him. I could feel his chest against my back. "I can't. Why? No." Words came spewing out of my mouth as I kept my eyes on her, so scared that if I looked away from her for just one moment she might just somehow snatch Murphy away. I had never before wanted to hurt someone as badly as I did when Raven suggested that.

"You sick bitch." Murphy hissed from behind me.

"Raven, you don't mean this." Clarke tried to reason, but even Clarke knew she did mean it.

"You know what they do to people." Bellamy added, but all Raven did was shake her head while she kept her eyes on Murphy.

"They want a murderer, we'll give them one." Raven replied, taking a step closer to us.

"No!" I could hardly use my voice muscles anymore, and my whole body tensed up. "Over my dead body." I finally was able to choke out, and let me tell you. If looks could kill, Raven would've been so dead.

"Go to hell, Raven." Murphy spat back from behind me as Raven raised her gun, and I took another step back into him, trying to stay as close to him as possible while also keeping my eyes on Raven, and blocking her aim.

"I trusted you." I yelled.

"Like it or not, he's one of us." Clarke said as she took a step closer to Raven.

"Riley, move out of the way." Raven hissed instead of even looking at Clarke.

"Go float yourself, Raven." I choked back. I couldn't, I just didn't know what to do. I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear her eyes out, anything. I really wanted to tear her eyes out, actually. Just so she could stop looking at us like that.

"Stop, stop!" Finn finally yelled as he quickly walked up to Raven and snatched the gun away from her. "We're not doing this." Finn said as he waved Raven's gun. "They have got us surrounded, all we can do is stay and defend the place."

"I'm with you." Bellamy stepped closer to Finn nodding.

"Murphy, Riley?" Finn asked as he looked hesitantly over at us. I must've looked like a freaking train wreck. I could feel myself shaking, which always happened when I got too stressed. And let me tell you, Raven threatening Murphy's life was extremely stressful.

"Yeah?" Murphy replied.

"Go upstairs and watch the rear. I'll take the lower level. You three, take the front gate." Finn said, pointing at us all at different moments. "That's the plan, alright?" Finn asked as he kept his eyes on Raven.

I felt like it would take a mountain to move me, every muscle in my body felt heavy. But all it took was Murphy's hand on my shoulder. I hesitantly turned towards Murphy, worried to take my eyes off Raven, and motioned for Murphy to go up the stairs first. I had always gone first, but I just couldn't stomach him being alone with them, not even for the second it would take to climb up the stairs.

Once I got up the stairs, I could feel my whole body shaking again and Murphy lifted me up to him. I closed the hatch door with my foot as Murphy dragged me away from it. "It's okay, Riley." He said, looking at me with concern filling his eyes.

"I thought." I stammered, my free hand shaking as I tried to bring it to him. "I thought they were going to take my best friend away from me. And give you to the grounders. Again."

Murphy let out a deep sigh as he grabbed my shaking hand and pulled me closer to him, kissing the top of my head as he pulled me closer.

"Well, now you know how I felt at that cliff." Murphy stated dryly.

"We can't trust them anymore, Murphy. I don't care what Clarke said, we can't." I said into his chest as I rested my head against it, trying to pull myself together.

"I know that now." Murphy mumbled as his hands dropped mine and he wrapped his arms around me. After a moment he brought his head down closer to mine, "Thank you." He whispered.

I pulled away slightly to look into his eyes as I asked, "For what?"

Murphy sighed, looking away from me for a moment before responding. "For being you, I guess." He mumbled, "For sticking up for me. For being about five seconds away from ripping Raven a new one."

"You're my best friend, Murphy." I said. "I will always be five seconds away from ripping a new one on anyone who tries to take you out of my life."

Murphy smiled, his lips finding mine after he whispered, "Good."


	6. Survival of the Fittest

**Longest Chapter so far! And in my opinion, one of the best chapters. But I ship Murphiley so hard that I can't help but not be so happy this finally happened. It only goes up (and then REALLY far down) from here, guys! The next chapter will be out on Murphiley Monday. If you want a sneak peck of this chapter, I will be posting one over the weekend on my tumblr for this story. Link in my profile, or look up rileyparkerneedstoshutup on tumblr.**

 **P.S. It's storming out and its scaring my dog, so if you could post a review saying, "It's okay Honey" (Yes, my dog's name is Honey. And he's a fucking sweetie) maybe he will feel better.**

* * *

Finn had given himself up. Raven had cried. We all went back to camp Jaha and that night we watched as Clarke killed Finn, to save him from being tortured. Clarke killed the boy she loved.

That night Murphy and I both laid awake in our own beds for hours. We couldn't seem to find words. Everything was so fucked up, and I know he was replaying Finn's death in his mind like I was. Hearing Raven's cry, the wailing of someone who would never be okay after losing their best friend. June's hand finding Breton's as they stood next to us, and the disgusted looks on everyone's faces when they looked at either four of us.

The next few days I buried myself in trying to learn how to shoot an arrow. Murphy had been allowed to keep his gun even after the grounder's 'peace', and he was also then assigned to do rounds. No one knew what to even do with me, and as June and Breton gave anyone who came near us a disgruntled glare, everyone kept their distance.

I was happy, to be left alone. I didn't trust any of them. Only June and Murphy. June and I could laugh with each other when she taught me, and she actually said I was quite good compared to the sword practice. But as Breton reminded her, anything that didn't hurt me would be considered better than the sword practice.

I didn't really like it when Breton tried to correct my stance. I knew he was the archer king or whatever, but still. He was a strange man in my eyes and therefore I didn't trust him quite yet. Murphy hadn't liked Breton getting close to me either, but Murphy always had a problem with territory.

"The only reason I haven't shot Breton yet is because of how he looks at June." Murphy mumbled one morning, bitter at the fact that the grounders would be entering camp that day. We had just finished eating breakfast, and were walking back to our room.

We pretty much had just wanted to hide from the grounders, and June and Breton had already disappeared to do so. Murphy was still drinking water, bringing the cup back with him from breakfast to our room.

I wasn't quite sure where we'd put the cup in our room, but I assumed we'd figure that out when it came down to it.

"If you shoot him, we'd end up friendless." I reminded him. If he even dared hurt Breton, June would go on a rampage. And after seeing June with a sword, I realized she wasn't someone you wanted to mess with. Being around Breton had brought out all her strength, and she became pretty unstoppable.

"Still doesn't change the fact that I want to do it." Murphy grunted back as he took another sip of water.

I couldn't help but giggle at how grumpy he was being. Yeah Breton was odd, but he mostly kept his distance. Definitely not bordering murdering territory. He only helped me learn because June dragged him along. I looked around as I stopped laughing, noticing the hall was filling. Soon we weren't able to even move, and Murphy groaned as he grabbed my hand, leaning against the wall.

"Too late." He grumbled, and I groaned when I noticed what he meant. Kane had been leading a bunch of grounders down the hallway. They all stopped, the crowd growing even more. A few grounders stopped across the hallway from us, and out of the corner of my eye I saw one of them point at us to the other.

"Quiet down." Kane said as the crowd moved to let him through, and he stopped in the middle.

"Those grounders are looking at us, Murphy." I brought my face up to his, my lips close to his ears as I whispered it to him. Murphy nodded, his hand holding onto mine tighter.

"I know we don't have a lot in common," Kane began, and I turned my head away from Murphy's to watch Kane speak. "But we do have a common enemy, and a common goal. And for us to reach it, to get our people out of Mount Weather, we need to work together." Kane tilted his body slightly to look at a grounder woman. She didn't seem pleased with this idea either. "Kongeda." Kane stated, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Someone had been taking a leaf out of June's book by learning their language. "Skaikru, and Trikru."

Kane's voice drained out from my hearing as my gaze snapped to a grounder walking quietly towards us. He was the one who had pointed us out to his friend.

"You got a problem?" Murphy hissed to the grounder, raising a brow.

 _"You both stood there watching while my village was massacred."_ The grounder hissed back, but unfortunately he said it in his language so neither Murphy or I really had any clue at that moment what he had said. A few words stuck out, like Kru meaning village, or people. But all we had to go on was the bitter look on his face.

"Sorry, man. I don't speak grounder." Murphy dryly said back, a smirk creeping slightly on his face as he shook his head slightly.

The grounder didn't like that response, and freaking punted Murphy's glass away from him. It landed on the ground between their feet, water ending up all over the floor. Suddenly my hand was dropped and Murphy had lunged himself at the grounder, shoving the grounder back. I don't know why whenever Murphy fought someone I found it kind of endearing. Screwed up childhood, probably.

"Mr. Murphy! Apologize to that man." Kane boomed, stopping the fight immediately with his commanding tone. If the situation hadn't been so serious, I would've giggled about Murphy being called 'Mr. Murphy'.

"For what?" Murphy hissed, his eyes never leaving the grounders. They were having this weird sort of glare off.

"He was the one who came at Murphy." I said, looking at Kane for a moment before going back to watching the stare off.

"Two days work detail. Both of you." Kane dismissed, and my mouth dropped open. Like, seriously? Murphy gets attacked and not only does he end up the one on janitor duty, but I do as well?

"Work detail? She just told you I didn't-" Murphy sputtered, his eyes leaving the grounder's for a moment to look incredulously at Kane.

"Care to make it three?" Kane asked, cutting Murphy off.

Murphy frowned, taking a step away from the grounder and closer to me. He grabbed my hand again and was ready to storm off when from behind us the grounder said, "Your bitch is gonna burn just like your friend."

Now we were both fucking pissed. Obviously the grounder had meant me. I had never been seriously called a bitch before. Sure, Reed used to call me her bitch all the time, but she meant it endearingly. Like how I called Murphy jerk-face, and he called me a dumbass. It was all just sweet talk. Really fucked up sweet talk, but I mean. Whatever floats our boat.

But that grounder was not being endearing, and Murphy dropped my hand and whipped around, swinging his fist at the grounder's head. I joined in too. Don't ask me why, I guess I just got too excited and needed to punch someone. Also, I didn't like how he said I was going to burn.

"Don't you fucking speak about her." Murphy hissed between trying to lay punches.

"Murphy, Parker!" Kane shouted, but everyone around us started in on the fight, pushing the grounder or sky person next to them. As the fight grew around us, Kane's voice became harder to hear, but I could still hear him shouting our last names. Once the grounder got distracted by the other's around him, Murphy quickly dipped away, grabbing my hand and dragging me out in between people.

I was so hyped at this point, my heart felt like it was about to explode with adrenaline. I didn't even think when Kane yanked my shoulder. I punched him as hard as I could in the chest. He dropped his hand and backed away from me. Not the wisest thing I've ever done, but I didn't want someone touching me.

We were able to get out of the crowd and escape to our room, but before we could even completely catch our breath, a member of the guard was at our door. He seemed pissed off, which was understandable considering he was holding a bucket, a mop, and a bunch of rags. Kane had been serious when he said 'work detail'. After handing us the cleaning supplies, the guy even snatched the gun that Murphy had left laying near the door.

It was safe to say our morning only went downhill from there. We had to walk from room to room, cleaning up other people's messes. I don't know why they bothered having us mop the floor. Murphy mopped, and I used the rag to dust and wipe everything down. It was boring work, and around lunch time we both found ourselves looking out of the window instead of actually cleaning.

Outside in the center of the camp, members of the guard were practicing shooting. Near them, grounders were practicing their gorilla warfare. It was all very segregated, with the exception of Octavia being with the grounders.

Octavia had started taking that 'Get knocked down, get back up' thing a little too seriously. For some reason, June and Octavia had started having disagreements. Maybe it was because Octavia wanted to be friends with all the grounders, and because of how Breton had been exiled, she couldn't go near the other grounders without any of them trying to stab her.

"They need to save their bullets for the grounders." Murphy mumbled, watching the guards with a look of complete in utter distaste on his face.

He was right, in my opinion. The only grounder I had ever liked was Breton, and he had been exiled for being too nice. For doing things like bandaging me up so I didn't bleed to death, and making sure Reed didn't get killed.

"We are all so fucking screwed." I added, moving the blinds slightly in annoyance. We were surrounded by enemies. Our own people had turned on us, not trusting us to not be the ones who started a fight.

Murphy and I had been so busy glaring outside, we hadn't noticed anyone come through the open door. I nearly jumped to the ceiling when I heard a deep voice behind us.

"I take it you two don't approve." It was jaha, and he looked at both of us curiously as he stopped in the middle of the room.

Jaha was still an asshole in my mind, and I knew Murphy felt the same way when instead of responding he took the mop back out of the bucket, letting it smack against the floor as he continued mopping.

"I asked you a question." Jaha said, making it clear that he wasn't going to let this one down so easily.

"Who cares what we think?" Murphy replied bitterly, looking down at the floor he was mopping.

I sighed as I brought the rag up to the blinds to clean them, "No one cares what we think." The sad part was how true it was. No one asked for our opinions on anything, and when we said something, we were usually told to shut up.

"I do." Jaha said, "Or I wouldn't have asked."

Fair enough Jaha, fair enough.

"I think the grounders can go to hell." Murphy spat, and I looked over at him to see him glaring at Jaha.

"I mean, Breton can stay. But, only him." I added. Murphy rolled his eyes, but continued glaring at Jaha.

"I got you both off of work detail." Jaha stated, and I nearly threw my rag down in excitement as I looked at Jaha in confusion. I had never realized how boring cleaning was.

"Why?" Murphy asked skeptically as he picked the mop back up and put it in the bucket.

"You both knew my son." Jaha answered, as if saying that made everything in the whole world make sense.

I groaned at his words. Yeah, we both had known him. Sometimes at night I could still see Wells' dead face, the dark ground around his neck covered in blood. His eyes open, and the look of surprise that had stayed etched in his features.

"Don't remind me." I mumbled, finally deciding to drop the rag down on the windowsill before looking down at the ground.

"Why?" Jaha asked, giving me a confused glance.

"I tripped over his dead body." I remarked as I looked back at Jaha, realizing just how awkward that sentence was. I mean, it was true. But I had a feeling he hadn't wanted to know that.

There was a moment of silence before Jaha finally changed the topic. "I'd like you both to take me to his grave." Jaha looked back from me to Murphy. "Now that there's a truce, it's safe for me to go and say goodbye."

I don't know why he would ever think we would want to go on a day trip back to hell with him. Murphy glanced over at me before moving his eyes to the ground as he sighed.

"Well, you can get someone else to take you." Murphy finally spat, his eyes going back to Jaha's to glare at him.

Jaha frowned at Murphy before looking back at me. "I'm told the graves are unmarked. You can show me which is his." Jaha said as he took a step closer to us. His hands went behind his back and he pulled out from his back pockets two guns, "You can hold the mop, or you can hold the gun."

Now that really threw me. Out of all the people I had expected to be the first to offer me a gun, he was definitely near the bottom of that list. Jaha looked at both of us, lifting the guns for us to take.

"Oh, I'm not allowed to have a gun." I said as I shook my head at Jaha. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Murphy nod at my statement before grabbing the gun held out closest to him.

"It looks like I'll meet you guys outside in five." Jaha remarked, bringing the other gun back and putting it back in his pocket.

* * *

Murphy had wanted a gun again so bad he had signed us up for what was probably the most awkward adventure in a lifetime. We had packed lunch and even dinner, just in case. If we had actually had more things, we would've packed those. But sadly, all of our belongings combined fit easily in one backpack. Murphy was dead convinced that like the gun, he also needed to carry the backpack. Not really something I could complain about, either. What would I have said, 'how dare you be considerate'?

"It's extraordinary, isn't it?" Jaha finally broke the silence of the walk, and I looked back to see him soaking up every part that nature had to offer.

"Oh, give it a few days." Murphy bitterly retorted, not even bothering to look back at Jaha as he continued to lead us through the woods.

"I may not know everything that happened before I got down here, but I do know something about what you're feeling, son." Jaha said, and I cringed. Murphy stopped walking in front of us, finally looking back at Jaha. And boy, was he pissed.

"Don't call me that." Murphy hissed. "I'm nobodies son. You made sure of that." He finished as he whipped back around and stormed off. I quickly threw a glare at Jaha before I skipped and caught up with Murphy.

My heart did weird things when Murphy was mad. Seeing him frown made my heart feel like it was shattering slightly.

"You could be my son." I whispered to him, trying to get him to smile. Or smirk, anything really besides that damn frown.

It worked, and a smirk slowly worked it's way onto his face. "I'm pretty sure the way I feel about you would make that concept extremely inappropriate."

Hearing Murphy say that almost blew my mind. It was the most forward he had ever been while he was sober, and the closest he had ever been to actually admitting he cared about me in a long time. I mean, obviously I knew he did. Everything he did made me think he had thought of my wellbeing while doing it.

"I remember your father." Jaha butted in, and that smirk that I had put on his face went right back to a frown.

"Yeah right." Murphy grunted, and I grabbed his hand as I saw a tense and sad look wash over his whole face.

"Alex Murphy." Jaha saying Murphy's dad's name made me want to punch him in the face. Instead, I held onto Murphy's hand tighter, and he did the same. "Convicted of theft of rationed medicine. He stole it to take care of you."

As he continued I realized that if he didn't shut up soon, I would do more than punch him.

"And your father, Riley." Oh, no. I could feel Murphy's eyes on me as Jaha said that. I continued to stare in front of us, trying not to let Jaha affect me. "William Parker. Theft of alcohol, I believe."

"Yeah well once I was thrown in the skybox he didn't have my rations any more to trade for it." I spat out, and I wanted to let go of Murphy's hand and just run away, and cry. But he held on tighter.

"I remember them all." Jaha admitted.

"You never told me your father ended up being floated." Murphy whispered to me, and I could still feel his eyes on me.

"He was going to be out of my life either way, it didn't really matter to me if he was alive or dead." I told him the same shit I had told myself ever since I had been told what had happened.

"Don't lie to me." Murphy hissed, yanking my hand so I would look at him.

"I have to." I spat back, glaring at him. "Or I'll have to stop lying to myself." I added, and I tried to pull my hand away from his. He finally let go, and I quickly turned around and continued walking.

"We're here." Murphy said behind me to Jaha, but I still couldn't look at either of them.

I liked running away from my past. Hell, I was good at it. And then Jaha had to just throw the chips in the air, letting them fall where they would. I continued walking, leading them to the graveyard.

I tried to block their voices out. I hated hearing the sadness in Murphy's voice, and I could still hear Jaha's words ringing in my mind. I felt like my whole world was shattering apart, and it had only taken Jaha to have said like ten words to do so.

* * *

Murphy had kept his distance from me for the rest of the day, only coming near the tree stump I sat on to give me food. I took the food silently, and it took me a long time to force myself to eat it. Every once in a while I would sneak a peak at Jaha, hopeful he would get off the ground next to his son's grave and that he would tell us we could go. But nightfall came and he still stayed on the ground.

"Are you done?" I finally choked out, my eyes staying on Jaha. I could feel Murphy's eyes on me, but I didn't look over at him. I was too afraid to see what his facial expression could be. I didn't think my heart could take it if I saw anger in his eyes.

"We gotta be heading back." Murphy added, taking in a very audible deep breath.

"How well did you two know him?" Jaha finally asked, looking up and both of us.

"I sat next to him on the dropship." I said, shrugging.

If I thought about it too much I could still hear his voice, trying to explain to Clarke why he came. Both of them bickering, me in the middle and miserable because I had been separated from my friends. Also because they had been talking about Clarke's dad dying at it was super awkward.

"We both knew him well enough to be hung for his murder." Murphy said, and I had to close my eyes.

This day was like a horrible trip down memory lane, where only the shitty memories were being brought up. "Clarke sugarcoated it for you, didn't she?" Murphy asked, knowing the answer was yes.

"What happened to my son?" Jaha asked, and opened my eyes again to see him stand up and take a step closer to Murphy.

"Twelve year old girl stabbed him in the neck with a knife she took from me, on the night Riley was on night watch." Murphy said, and the sorrow in his voice finally made me look at him.

He didn't look at me, he only continued glaring at Jaha.

"Why would she do that?" I could hear confusion in Jaha's voice.

"She couldn't kill you." Murphy said, "So you got a lot of blood on your hands, Chancellor." He continued, taking a step towards Jaha. "And every single one of them, including your son would still be alive if you hadn't sent us down here." There was so much regret and anger in his voice, and I wanted to cry.

Yeah, being on earth had fucking sucked for while, but if we never went to earth, Murphy would've died and I never would've seen him ever again. That had to make the torture worth it, right? My mind started working on overdrive, thinking of all the possible situations in where he could've actually regretted earth completely.

"If I didn't send you, they would've died on the ark with the rest of you. You two would've never seen each other again. We would've never known the earth was survivable. Their sacrifice is why we are here." Jaha said. "Good can come out of even the darkest acts, John."

Hearing Jaha call Murphy 'John' was unsettling. John was his name, but that wasn't what I associated with him. He was always Murphy to me. He was always my Murphy to me.

Jaha let out a deep sigh before starting to walk away, towards the dropship.

"Camp 'you' is that way." Murphy spat, pointing in the opposite direction of where Jaha was walking.

"We'll rest at the dropship for a while." Jaha said as he continued walking, and I let out a deep sigh.

After Jaha's silhouette disappeared into the dropship, Murphy finally spoke up. "Are you coming?" He asked, and I looked back down at the ground before forcing myself to look at him.

He seemed to be having difficulties looking at me as well, and all I wanted to do was cry. It was as if this day dragged up all the anger he had ever felt, and it all was shown on his face.

"I will, soon. I just need to be left alone with my thoughts, I guess." I said, and Murphy nodded, not forcing the subject and walking to the dropship as well.

We had told each other everything. I had told him about every little thing Reed and I had done when we were in the skybox. But I hadn't ever mentioned my dad to him. Hell, I tried not to mention my dad to myself. He had been a piece of shit to me, and had treated me like dirt. He had stolen my rations to feed his addictions, and had blamed me for every problem. But he was my father, and something inside me still had loved him.

I kept myself on that stump for a long time. I had known I had made a mistake by not telling Murphy, but I hadn't been ready to admit it. His reaction had made it worse, too. He had never been one to turn away from me, and a night before he never would've let me stay outside by myself.

I had started to think maybe I had messed everything up. I was very good at screwing things up, after all.

I quietly made my way back to the dropship, stopping myself by the dropship doors. I had wanted to just walk in, but my feet seemed to not like the idea of getting any closer. Quietly I sat down right by the door, waiting for my courage to come back. I could hear them speaking, and being nosy and desperate, I listened.

"Are you sure, you must be hungry." Jaha asked, and I could hear him shake some sort of tin. It hadn't occurred to me that Jaha had even brought any food. I guess part of me had assumed Jaha didn't eat, and thrived off spite or something.

"No one gives anything without expecting something in return." Murphy snapped back, and the anger and sadness I had seen earlier was still evident in his voice, shattering my heart slowly.

"That's a cynical way to go through life, John. You and Riley clearly have a lot of trust issues." Jaha said, and I had to close my eyes.

We had a shit ton of problems, but we had never really ever had problems with each other. Not until now.

"You pull us off work detail, you offer me food. Why are you being so nice to us?" Murphy asked, changing the topic.

"Everyone deserves a second chance." Jaha stated offhandedly. "That's why we sent the hundred to earth in the first place."

"What a load of crap." Murphy spat, "You didn't give a damn about us. You still don't. That's why you're not fighting for those kids in mount weather."

Murphy bringing up the others in mount weather was like another stab to the heart. I had missed Reed so much it hurt, but I had learned to deal with it like I did with everything; by avoiding the subject entirely. I only brought up happy memories about her, never that she was somewhere inside a mountain, most likely scared out of her skull.

"No," Jaha dismissed, "I have to think of everyone. I know you don't want to hear this, but sometimes you have to sacrifice the few to save the many. Like I said, good can come out of even the darkest acts."

I had to bring my hands to my mouth to stop myself from making any audible sounds.

"The only good that has came from this is Riley, and your choices put her through hell as a kid." Hearing Murphy's words, him speaking of me like that, made my heart leap. "You nearly let her father's selfishness kill her."

I held my chest, his words ringing in my mind. He was mad, but it was because of how I had not treated, not because of me. Maybe there was hope for us after all.

"That's why you got into those fights, isn't it? What had those boys done to her?" Jaha asked, and I realized he must've known exactly how Murphy had gotten locked up, but had never actually tried to figure out why.

"They stole what little food Riley had left and waved it around in her face. They made fun of her everyday at school for being so damn thin. She cried herself to sleep too many times for me to count, and still no one did shit about it. And we may have been pardoned, but we are still treated like shit." I could hear how hard to was for Murphy to say that, and I felt worse for being glad he had said it.

For finally telling someone, for freeing himself of some of the anger he had held in. When we were kids, he had always been angry. At school, he was always seconds away from a fight. He only seemed to calm down around me, and I had always assumed that was because I could distract him from all the other shit that was going on.

"You've both made mistakes. So have I." Jaha said before letting out a deep sigh. "And letting Riley go through that was one of my biggest mistakes. But you must know John, she wasn't the only kid in that kind of situation."

Jaha was right, and it pissed me off. The fact that he knew kids were starving, their parents drinking themselves into a flurry, and he still had did nothing about it.

"We are both nothing like you, Chancellor." Murphy's voice was getting louder.

"No? All of us have suffered at the hands of the grounders. We all should've died several times now. We all have been betrayed and imprisoned by our own people." Jaha's voice was raising well, and it was becoming more clear how hurt he had been by his people choosing to listen to Abby and Kane instead of him.

"So there's no place for any of us, then. Great." Murphy spat, "I thought you were supposed to be inspiring."

"There is a place for all of us. One where Riley would be safe." Jaha said, yet again his words angered me enough to want to punch him. He still thought of me as a helpless little girl. "When I first landed on earth, I met a woman who spoke of a place beyond the dead zone. A place where everyone is accepted. A city of light." Jaha sounded like he had lost his mind.

"That sounds like a fairytale." Murphy said dismissively, his voice lowering back to its regular tone.

"Or a second chance." Jaha interjected, and I could hear the smile in Jaha's voice.

"You don't even know if it's real." Murphy reminded him, the annoyance in his voice only slightly evident.

"You're right, I don't. But I believe." Jaha said, his words getting sappy and sappier by the minute.

"Well that's good for you chancellor. Very good." Murphy said sarcastically before adding, "I'm going to check on Riley." I could hear him stand up.

My eyes bulged and I scrambled myself to my feet as fast as I could. Quickly I jumped over to the side of the dropship where Murphy had stood that night after he killed Connor, and I waited.

"What the fuck ever, moses." Murphy yelled back as he threw open the curtain, storming down a few feet away from the dropship before stopping and letting out a deep sigh. He stood there breathing for a moment before he turned around, and spotted me.

"You heard everything, didn't you?" Murphy asked rhetorically, watching me closely. The sadness in his eyes had disappeared slightly since I had seen him last.

"I'm sorry." I finally choked out, and it was so hard to keep my eyes on him while he gave me such an intense stare. "I don't know why I never told you."

"No." Murphy said as he took his eyes off me, looking away and shaking his head. "I know why. Because when the truth hurts too much, you avoid it entirely." He said, letting out a deep sigh. "That's why you never really talk about Reed being in Mount Weather. It's too much for you to face, so you don't face it at all."

Murphy knew me better than myself, and all I could do was nod and keep staring at him, hoping he'd say something. Anything reassuring, anything that would tell me that I hadn't hurt him. But I knew I had.

"I'm so sorry." I finally choked out, and as my body always did whenever everything became too much, it started to shake.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Rhy." Murphy finally said as he looked back at me and took a step closer. "Don't cry." Even though he said not to cry, it was near impossible to stop. "Riley, the only reason I had been mad at you was because it hurt me to see that you had been sad, but instead of letting me help you, you kept it a secret. So stop your crying. Stop worrying over every little thing that's happening."

I nodded at him, but still couldn't stop the tears from falling down my face. God, when did I become so damn emotional? Is this what caring about people was like, pain and tears?

"Why are you always so," I brought my hands up to my face to wipe away the tears that had fallen, "So _you_ about everything. Why are you so nice, and caring?"

Murphy sighed, bringing his hands to his eyes to rub them before looking at me, "I'm always so," he let out a deep exhale, "So _me_ about everything is because when I'm _me_ , even when I go on a rampage, or get angry for people even looking at you, when I tell you that you can't even touch a gun, or I call you a dumbass, you're so you about it. Normal people don't put up with that kind of shit, Riley. Let alone look at me the way you do."

I could feel myself smiling, and I had to look away from him for a moment. My eyes went back to him when I heard him walking towards me.

"I've killed people, Riley." he admitted as he stopped a foot in front of me, "And I liked it. And I would kill again if it was because someone hurt you."

"Stop making yourself sound like a villain." I said, frowning at the serious expression on his face, "I'm just as fucked up as you. I like it when you get jealous over dumb things, and I like that shitty shit eating smirk you do whenever you say anything that embarrasses me. I like how you know just want to say to me, to either comfort me or to piss me off, or.."

I stopped speaking when Murphy finally closed the distance between us. All I could think about suddenly became his lips, and how much I missed them against mine. As if he could hear what I was thinking, (And it was probably written all over my face.) He lowered his head to mine, our lips having a get together while my hands flew up to wrap around his neck. One of his hands went to the back of my neck, making sure the kiss wouldn't end anytime soon as his other hand went to my hip, and had no problem sneaking itself under my shirt as it moved to the middle of my back. Just incase there had been any room between us, his hand on my back pushed me closer into him, ensuring that no space would be made in between us.

My brain was on meltdown mode, and all I could think about was keeping his lips against mine. Letting him part my mouth open with them, everything about him. I could feel his smile, and instead of breaking the kiss, he continued. We kissed each other just like the touch deprived teenagers we were. We kissed each other almost as if our lives depended on our mouths remaining touching.

Finally our lips parted as we both desperately tried to breathe. "We should stop, now." Murphy said between breathes, and everything about his tone showed how hard it was for him to say that.

Instead of listening to himself however he stole another kiss, before he forced his mouth away from mine, resting his forehead against mine. "Riley please, just push yourself away from me."

"What?" Okay, now he was just being rude. Funny how that always seemed to happen. We'd have a moment, and it'd be all fun and games and then he'd be rude.

"If you don't get yourself away from me, I don't think I'll be able to stop." He said between deep breathes.

Oh. _Oh_. His arms loosened around me and as my eyes shot open in surprise, I forced myself to take my arms away from him and take a step back.

Everything was breaching strange territory for us. We knew you know, about the birds and the bees and all that shit. But we were both locked up in a maximum security prison before we really got to that point with anyone, let alone each other. He may have made jokes about it before, but now everything was actually serious.

"Farther." He said, shifting slightly and as he kept his eyes closed, still taking deep breathes. I quickly took another step away from him. "Farther." He said again.

"Okay seriously, are we going to spend the rest of our lives three feet away from each other?" I finally huffed out.

He started to laugh before shaking his head. "I sure fucking hope to god we don't." He whispered. "Just give me a moment, okay?"

"I don't really understand." I finally admitted. This had never happened before when we'd kiss. Normally it'd end and he'd say something to piss me off, and that would be that.

"I guess you weren't the only one avoiding stuff." He said as he shrugged, his eyes still closed. After a few moments of silence he opened his eyes, looking into mine. "There's a lot of stuff we missed out on talking to each other about. Like normal couple-relationship things. Things that some day, soon hopefully," queue shit eating smirk, "We will talk about. Until then, go into the dropship and go to sleep. You're stuck in a relationship with me for the long haul, whether or not you like it."

I couldn't help but smile back at him, blushing slightly. "Good."

Murphy laughed at my response, shaking his head, "You're not supposed to find 'whether or not you like it' a good thing, Rhy." He said as he continued to laugh.

"Well too fucking bad jerk face. 'cause I do." I spat back at him, frowning slightly.

All he could do was smile though and laugh, before nodding his head and saying, "Yeah, you're definitely stuck with me whether or not you like it now."


	7. Coup de Grace

**Happy Murphiley Monday! It's Monday somewhere right now, right?  
I have no self control, so this is technically coming out on Sunday night.  
Thanks to wintxrfxll for messaging me on Tumblr. It means the world and a half to me to talk about this story. If Murphiley is ruining your life, join the conversation! The link is in my profile, or look up rileyparkerneedstoshutup on tumblr.**

* * *

I had gone into the dropship that night after I realized Murphy wasn't going to stop laughing for a while. I couldn't even be mad about him being happy, because I loved seeing him happy. How unfair was that?

When I woke up the next morning I found Murphy laying next to me, and as usual my heart did that horrible heart murmur thing. Last night had been horrible and amazing at the same time. Somehow, Murphy and I had went from being mad at each other to confessing how much we liked each other. How much more we liked each other than normal best friends, at least.

I was snapped out of it when I heard shouts from outside, and I sat up immediately. Jaha was no longer in the dropship where I had seen him the night before when I had went to sleep.

"Murphy." I finally whispered, nudging him to wake him up. He groaned and rolled over away from me. "Really, asshole? I think something weird is going on outside." I said, but all he did was snicker for a moment, not getting up. "I will go out there and investigate it by my damn self, then." I spat.

Now that woke him up. "I'm up, calm your shit down." He grumbled, yawning.

I rolled my eyes, pulling myself off the floor when Murphy finally spoke up again.

"Rhy." He whispered, and I watched as he stood up next to me. God, he's tall. "Were you serious, you know. Last night, about eventually going there…"

Oh boy. Not even awake for five minutes and he's already making sure he's on the train to pound town, or whatever.

"No. I actually have hated you all along. This is actually all a ploy-" Murphy didn't even let me finish. He rolled his eyes as he grabbed my hand, pulling me into him and catching my mouth with his.

It was quick, but when it finished we were both smiling. "You don't need to be a bitch about it." He teased as he gave my hand one last squeeze before letting it go.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes as he picked up the backpack off the floor. He gave me one last shit eating smirk before letting his face return to its normal facade. He grabbed the gun from his pocket and readied it, walking towards the outdoors first.

Out of all the things I had expected when we got outside, a group of people ready to follow Jaha was low, if not at the bottom of the list. With how crazy he had talked the night before, it was even lower than the idea of Clarke and Co. being outside with a surprise birthday cake.

What made it even weirder was that June and Breton were among the crowd, looking extremely out of place. June had a large backpack on, and her sword sheathed to her hip. Breton had a quiver full of arrows on his back, and his bow in his right hand.

"Hey, what the hell is this?" Murphy asked, looking around the crowd confused. I continued looking at June and Breton for a few more moments before looking to Jaha, waiting for an answer.

Jaha turned around and looked at us, smiling. "We're going to the city of light."

Now it was safe to say I was really confused. Why would June and Breton be in the crowd to go to some city of light? I had started thinking I might have died in my sleep the night before.

It would've made sense. The way Murphy had drawn me in for a kiss, cutting off my words with his mouth, was almost too good to be true.

"You're going now?" Murphy asked, and I looked at him to see an incredulous look on his face as he glared at Jaha. "There's a million ways to die out there."

"If it's not your time, nothing can kill you. But if it is your time, it only takes one." Jaha replied way too philosophically for me.

"That's really not reassuring at all." I mumbled. How was being told if it was my time, I'd die regardless supposed to make me feel good? Because it didn't.

"You even have a map?" Murphy asked, raising a brow at Jaha and crossing his arms over his chest.

"No." Jaha admitted. "Breton has heard enough to lead us, though."

June snorted loudly, and the whole crowd looked at her. She grinned, and as she was unable to stop laughing she turned away, trying to compose herself as Breton said; "I never said I knew that much."

Dear lord. They were being lead by Breton, who didn't know much about the matter.

"You two want to stop being criminals?" Jaha asked, bringing our attention away from Breton and back onto himself. "Then you have to stop thinking that's all you are." I didn't even know how to respond to that, which was surprising because I just about always had something snarky to say. "Take this leap of faith with me, John Murphy and Riley Parker. Let me show you there is so much more for both of you than this." Jaha said, and turned to lead the crowd away from the dropship.

"Our only two friends are going." I mumbled as I watched June's and Breton's backs as they started to walk away, lingering slightly behind the group.

It took Murphy a minute before he finally asked, "Do you really want to leave Reed?"

I exhaled deeply, closing my eyes for a moment before looking at him. "No." I admitted. "But I can't stop living in the hopes that she will be there. I think we have to move on with our lives."

It was one of the hardest things I had ever said in my life, and one of the hardest things to think about. Leaving camp Jaha was accepting that I'd never see Reed again, and that idea was scary as hell. She had been there for me for so long, I had never imagined my life without her. Mainly because I had always assumed I'd get floated at 18. But that wasn't the point.

"Are you sure?" Murphy asked hesitantly, his blue eyes boring deeply into mine.

"We've got each other. What more have we needed at camp Jaha?" I said quickly, starting to breath quicker. "Besides, I can tell you want to go. And running away from here didn't end up so badly for us last time."

Murphy shook his head and scoffed,"You got stabbed last time."

"Yeah, but it was just a flesh wound." I said, shrugging when he raised a brow. "Besides, this time we'll have sword wielding June and archer Breton."

I knew nothing could go two wrongly with those two around us. They weren't the kind to go down without a fight, just like Murphy and myself.

"Are you really sure?" Murphy had the audacity to ask again.

"I don't think I'll ever be sure of anything in my life, Murphy." I said as I let out a deep breath, then added, "Besides you."

"We're really doing this." Murphy said his eyes still on me but, almost like the idea was so shocking to himself that he felt like he had to tell himself.

"Well not if we stray far behind them." I mumbled and I looked at where they had walked off to. I smiled when I noticed June there.

"Are you two coming?" She shouted impatiently.

"Yeah." I shouted back. And with one final chuckle from Murphy, we ran to catch up to her.

I stopped for a moment once we got outside the camp's walls. "May we meet again, Reed. May we meet again." I whispered to myself as I looked at the dropship one more time before turning my back and running to catch up with Murphy, June, and Breton.

* * *

The dead zone was freaking weird. It was such a quick change. One second, we were walking through the forest, and then the next all there was around us was sand. Lots, and lots of sand. I had never realized how annoying sand was. Mainly because I had never experienced it before. It got everywhere, and we were forced to wear our hoods up and sometimes scarves so it wouldn't get in our mouth when it blew. And man, it blew around all the freaking time.

What was worse was that everything had slightly changed between Murphy and I. We had taken a step neither of us had ever taken before, and it was going to take time to adjust to us both knowing how the other felt. We had always had a feeling about it, but neither of us had really had the time to comphrend it. The day after the first time he had kissed me, he got hanged and I got felt up.

June was a savior, really. She walked by me the whole morning, and at one point finally realized just what had happened.

"Why is Murphy actually walking over by Breton?" June asked, watching how Breton, Murphy, and Jaha were all in front of us, leading the way.

That was a bizarre occurrence. Murphy had wanted to shoot Breton a day before just because Breton had to fix my stance sometimes in Archery practice. Now, he was walking next to Breton and didn't seem to be glaring at him. Or yelling, or any of the typical Murphy responses.

"I don't know." I mumbled, feeling my cheeks get warm.

I had known why. We were still grasping what it all meant, and giving each other some time to breath was probably the smartest thing we had done in a while.

"Did you guys finally admit your feelings for each other?" June quietly asked, stopping me dead in my tracks. She turned to look at me and then laughed, and continued walking.

I took a deep breath before jumping to catch up with her. "How do you do it?" I paused for a moment, watching Murphy's back. "Go from best friends to something more?"

She let out a deep sigh, "When were you two locked up, again? I mean, what age?"

"We were both 14 turning on 15." I admitted, and I looked at her to see her smiling and shaking her head. She knew just by me saying our age, that we hadn't had any relationships of this manner before. Unlike her probably, considering she had never been locked up.

"Well." She exhaled deeply, and I watched her eyes go to Breton, "It's not like he's no longer going to be your best friend." I known that was true, but for some reason it was a relief to hear. "It's just that sometimes its going to be more. That jealousy thing is probably going to get worse for him, too."

I couldn't help but laugh at that as my eyes went to Murphy. As if he knew I was looking at him, he turned to look back. His eyes caught mine and he looked relieved when he noticed June next to me, and then he turned back to keep walking.

"It's really going to get worse for him when you two actually get around to screwing each other." June said so quickly, I had hoped I had heard her wrong. My mouth dropped open and my eyes shot to hers. When my eyes landed on her she started laughing so hard even Breton had to look back for a moment.

"I really did not want to have that talk with you." I mumbled, trying to force my mouth to stay shut. Finally after a few minutes of her strangled laughs, I finally gave in and started laughing too.

It was funny. Not even a month earlier I would've told someone they were out of the fucking mind if they had told me this is where I would end up. Never in my dreams did I expect to find myself following freaking Chancellor Jaha across a desert, and having girly conversations with weird-ass grounder loving June about Murphy and I.

Hearing our laughter go on for so long made Murphy stop walking, looking back and waiting for us to reach him.

"What are you two laughing about so hard?" Murphy asked as he raised a brow, looking from June to myself.

June snorted, shaking her head. "Wouldn't you love to know." She choked out between giggles.

Murphy frowned at her before looking back at me and raising a brow as he joined in step with us, right next to me.

"Honestly, you really don't." I admitted.

Something told me no matter how much he liked to bring the conversation to this sort of topic, he would not be happy to talk about it with June. I had hardly wanted to talk about it with June and she was my friend.

Murphy shook his head in defeat, and we all walked a bit faster to catch up with Breton and Jaha.

Once we reached Breton and Jaha, Breton fell into step next to June. As I looked from June to Breton, I realized I never really asked how they met. I had just know that he had saved her life, or something. Jaha didn't seem into being apart of the gang, and started walking faster than us to lead. Whatever, Jaha.

"How did you meet Breton, exactly?" I asked as I continued looking at June.

June frowned, letting out a deep sigh before saying, "Well, it was that night you were watching the fire with Monty and Reed."

Hearing Reed's name was like a shot to the heart. Remembering that night, Reed next to me on the log as all we had talked about was what we had achieved while on earth. Mine had been that Murphy had made out with me. It had all seemed so trivial back then.

My whole body must've tensed at hearing Reed's name, because the next thing I knew Murphy had intertwined his fingers with mine, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze. I squeezed it back, so thankful for his existence.

"That ship carrying Raven had fallen, and Bellamy had told everyone to wait till morning." June let out a deep exhale, "But he didn't wait. Octavia and I followed him, trying to find out why he would go off by himself."

"Because he's a selfish asshole?" Murphy asked, and instead of correcting him, June nodded.

"He had shot Chancellor Jaha to get himself and me on the dropship. He hadn't told Octavia or myself that." June looked pissed. "He had made me an assessory to murder, and had been going to make sure no communications between us and the ark couldn't be made."

Damn. No wonder she was pissed. I had known Bellamy was an asshole, but I hadn't known that. Then again, I was always the last person to know anything.

"Octavia was even madder." June added, "And she had run off in the opposite direction. I had followed her, considering she had been my best friend when we were growing up. We ended up falling down a steep hill, both getting knocked unconscious." June continued, her breathing starting to calm as she lifted up her sleeve to show a horrendous scar that went from her wrist all the way to the middle of the upper arm, "I got cut really badly on a jagged rock. I would've died if Breton hadn't found me."

Silence broke between all of us as she pulled her sleeve back down. I was in shock. No one had told me that, and I hadn't noticed a cut on her arm until she had started to teach me how to fight, and even then it had been mostly covered.

"How did he find you?" Murphy asked from beside me, his thumb stroking mine and sending butterflies up my arm.

"Lincoln and I were on a scouting mission." Breton finally pipped in, "And we had found them. Lincoln took Octavia, I took June. I had taken June to a cave away from Tondc."

"What is Tondc?" I sputtered, leaning my head out slightly to look around June to Breton.

"Tondc was the village that Finn had massacred." Breton replied, refusing to look at me and instead he continued looking out in front of us at where we were walking.

"Anyways," June cut in, trying to defuse the tension. "Breton had helped me get better. I could've left earlier to get back to you guys, but I was so mad at Bellamy I didn't want to. Also, Breton knew a whole language unknown to me that I could learn."

I couldn't help but snort at that, shaking my head as I looked at her. She was such a freaking linguist, deciding to stay with a strange guy who could kill her, just because then she could learn something new.

"And then you kept going back to him." I added as I looked away from her to look in front of me.

"Yeah. I couldn't handle Bellamy and his 'righteous' crusade." June said, and I could see out of the corner of my eye she was shrugging, "Bellamy had lied to us, and then tortured Lincoln. It was all a little too much for me."

"I can't believe he let Murphy get hanged for a crime he didn't commit, when he had shot Chancellor Jaha." I mumbled, defeated.

"Exactly." June huffed, and from beside my I felt Murphy squeeze my hand even tighter. I looked at him and saw that he was looking back at me, and we smiled at each other before looking ahead.

* * *

The rest of the day went surprisingly well. Also, kinda weird. I had learned way too much about Breton. June had apparently been extremely deprived of any sort of female conversation, and quickly turned to topics neither Murphy or Breton had wanted to hear.

I had learned that her side braid she had gotten, and Breton's braid were linked. They showed their devotion to each other. It was oddly endearing, but also just a little weird. When I had asked her why she would pledge her devotion so quickly or whatever, she said it was because we were all at war. Neither of them knew most days if they would live to see the next, and they had wanted to live as long as they could being each others.

Which was sickeningly sweet, and even though I told her how weird it was, I kind of envied her. June knew now for the rest of her life where she stood with Breton, and that was apparently with him right next to each her.

As night fell, we all made camp in a valley between a bunch of large dunes. Food was rationed out, and fires were made. The majority shared one large fire, but being the lepers of society the four of us were, we made a smaller one farther away from the rest.

It was the first night in weeks that I had gotten to sit next to a fire, and actually talk to people. Breton told us grounder legends, which were horrifying to say the least. Growing up a grounder must've been rough, considering their parents didn't tell them that there was nothing under their bed, or to not be scared. Their parents told them that they needed to kill their fears, and eat them for sustenance.

There we precautionary tales, of not being allowed to hold a gun. If a grounder was ever to touch a gun, the mountain men would come out and kill their whole village. He told us how certain face tattoos meant certain things. The grounder with the debatably tasteful face tattoo in Tondc's name was Nyko, and his meant that he was their head healer.

It was a lot to wrap my head around, and not before long the conversation died down as everyone started growing tired. June and Breton were the first to fall asleep out of the four of us. Although I was quite sure Breton had never actually slept, his posture was always rigid as if he was going to jump into a fight at any moment.

I laid looking up at the stars, mesmerized. Not even a year earlier, we had been amongst the stars, convinced that reaching the ground wouldn't be possible in our lifetime.

"Are you awake?" Murphy whispered from beside me as I felt his fingers lightly brush my wrist.

"Nah." I joked, turning my body towards him and smiling. He withdrew his hand from my wrist and mimicked my actions, a surly smirk growing on his face as he rolled his eyes.

"What were you thinking, just then?" Murphy asked as he brought his other hand up to my face, resting it on my cheek.

"Earth." I said, smiling and remembering that day in the meadow when he had been trying to teach me how to fight. I had tried to start a conversation then by simply saying, 'So, earth.'

"Yeah." He exhaled deeply, nodding his head slightly. "It's all a little insane." His hand brushed my cheek for a moment before he let out another deep sigh and dropped his hand, bringing it back to his side.

We laid there staring at each other for a long time before he spoke again. "I have to ask," He said, frowning slightly, "You were in the most relaxed section of the skybox. You were around the druggies, the petty thieves, and the accomplices of accomplices. You could've met someone, no guard would've stopped you."

Oh. Oh. He hadn't been joking about us having those conversations some time soon. I could feel my cheeks redden as he continued to watch me, waiting for a response.

"Are you saying I should've hooked up with someone while in the skybox?" I asked, letting out a deep breath after saying it. I had never spoken about this before, to anyone.

"I'm not saying you should've." He said as he closed his eyes for a moment, shaking his head. "I'm saying you could've. You knew they'd kill you within less than a year before we ended up getting sent to earth. But you didn't try to experience anything."

"I,." I could feel myself shaking with nerves. "I didn't want to." I didn't like these sort of questions.

Realistically, he was right. They had been super lenient on my level. But for some reason, I hadn't even thought about it.

"Would you have?" I finally mustered up the courage to ask.

Murphy let out a deep sigh as he shook his head, "No, I wouldn't have."

"Well, why not?" I found myself asking, curious. That's what normal guys would've done, right? I'm sure thats what some of the guys who knew they were going to die on my level did.

He didn't respond, he merely shook his head again and turned his body away from mine. Which, if you asked me, was fucking rude of him. He had the audacity to ask me these sort of questions, but when I asked him, he clammed up and turned his back to me?

"I asked you a question, Jerk-face." I hissed to him, lightly punching him in the back to get his attention. He didn't respond, only making me more annoyed. "Hey, I answered your fucking questions." I tried to remind him as a punched his back again, this time slightly harder.

This time he reacted. He flipped back over and glared slightly before laying flat on his back, staring up at the stars.

"Are you saying to me that if I had been given the chance to 'hook up' with someone, I should've taken it?" Murphy rebutted, his eyes still on the stars.

It took me a moment to respond. I let out a deep breath and turned to lay on my back and look up at the stars instead.

"I don't know what I'm saying." I finally admitted. "I just guess, that." I let out another deep breath, feeling my heart clench slightly. I had been yet again faced with something I had avoided, and damn was it hard. "I had always assumed it would be us, and I had never wanted to think differently."

The silence after what I had said hadn't lasted long, thankfully. Within seconds Murphy had pulled himself on top of me, his strong arms and legs preventing him from crushing me. Gently, he lowered himself closer to me, his lips meeting mine as he moved one of his legs in between mine.

With his body pressed so closely to mine, feeling every part of him, I had started to realize how true I had just been. I had always imagined this when I had thought of the future when I was a young teen.

Well, maybe not on earth in the desert while we graphically felt each other up. But I had thought of him. The only person in the world who had cared about me growing up. The person who got himself thrown into the skybox for me.

With Murphy so close to me, it felt as if every part of my skin that he touched sparked to life. His hand on hip, pushing my shirt up slightly.

The very same shirt he had given me months earlier to save me from being indecent around a bunch of criminals.

Murphy began to surround my every sense. The smell of him, feeling his hair in between my fingers as I wrapped my arms around his neck, the taste of his mouth against mine, hearing him groan slightly as he pushed himself even closer to me. Seeing his face so close to mine.

When our mouth parted, we were both gasping for air. I looked at him as he rested his forehead against mine.

"God damnit Riley." He groaned, and I felt his grip on my hip tighten. "Why would you say something like that after what I had told you last night?"

"After you said what?" I asked as I closed my eyes again, reveling in our closeness. "That you have no self-control?"

"Yes." He said through gritted teeth.

"Maybe she assumed you would have more self-control when you were across a fire from us." June yelled, and both of our eyes shot open. Murphy pushed himself off of me, a look of complete and utter annoyance painted on his face as he went back to laying on his back, looking up at the stars.

I had no clue what Breton had said in response to June ruining our moment, but I can only assume he had said something like, " _June, leave the poor boy alone. Let them enjoy being teenagers."_

June let out a deep huff, before saying, "Sorry guys. Continue woo-ing each other, or whatever."

I couldn't help but let out a loud snort at that before looking next to me at Murphy, who was looking up at the stars like he was in pain. Man, I had no clue what it was to be like a guy but it was starting to appear to be painful. Or something.

"Murphy?" I whispered to him, bringing myself closer to him so June wouldn't hear us speaking again.

"Yes, Rhy?" Murphy responded just as quietly, closing his eyes.

"Are you going to go to sleep now?" I asked, letting out a deep breath. "Because we could keep talking about that relationship stuff you wanted us to talk about."

He finally cracked a smirk, turning his head to look at me. "You mean the relationship stuff I had wanted us to talk about before we got any farther?"

I smiled back at him, "Yeah. I promise to not say anything that could you know, make you lose control or whatever."

He shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment, "Riley Audrey Parker." He muttered, shocking me slightly. He hadn't used my full name in years. "You must be really fucking dumb if you hadn't noticed that just about everything you do or say makes me lose control a bit."

Okay, and we were back to rude Murphy. For some reason, even when he was insulting me, I liked it. Which really showed how messed up I was, and still am.

"John Richard Murphy." I said his whole name, figuring two could play that game. Whether or not it was a smart game to be playing was another story. His eyes shot open and he raised a brow at me. "You must really be so fucking dumb if you hadn't known when we were kids that I had wanted to marry you."

"Oh, I had known." He said as he turned his body towards mine, his face getting slightly closer to mine. "I had just assumed like a normal, sane person, you would've realized how much trouble I was after I got myself locked into a maximum security wing of the skybox."

"And you really need to stop villianizing yourself." I muttered, lifting myself up slightly and placing a quick kiss on his cheek, "You have saved my life more times than I can even count."

Murphy let out a quiet chuckle before whispering, "The city of light better have rooms with doors that shut."

I couldn't help but let my mouth go agape in surprise as to what he was saying. Then he gave me that shit eating smirk, nodding his head before he turned to lay back on his back and look up at the stars.

I went to lay back down as well when Murphy whispered, "Come here." as he motioned towards me to sleep in his open arms.

"I don't know if I should after that remark." I whispered back to him, and as he smiled at me I crawled closer and laid my head on his chest, his arms around me. I had found falling asleep to the sound of his heart beat.


	8. Rubicon

**Happy Friday!**  
 **There is only one chapter of season 2 after this one! YIKES.**  
 **I'm scared. We should ALL be scared. I can't really get far on season 3 until it ends. I'll probably do a bit of Murphy's POV and like some stuff that will happen within the three months between season 2 and 3.** **  
Wintxrfxll is still the best, and if anyone wants a sneak preview of the next chapter, I'll be posting it on Murphiley monday on my tumblr. User handle rileyparkerneedstoshutup, link in my profile.**

* * *

Waking up in Murphy's arms was the best feeling in the world. It didn't matter that is was getting hot out in the desert, and he was making it feel even hotter. Whenever I was in his arms I felt like the world couldn't get to me.

My hair was starting to take a dreadful turn in the sand. I had never put my hair up, and that fact was starting to catch up with it. When I woke up, I considered putting it all up and out of the way. But then Murphy ran his fingers through it, helping me get the knots out of it while he gave me a quick kiss on the top of my head. I had realized at that moment I had always kept it down partially because he seemed to like my hair down. Not to say that I didn't like my hair down, because trust me. I definitely did. Nobody puts up with this much hair unless they like it.

We were all a little groggy that morning, and for the most part in the beginning we actually stayed with the group. Not to say that the group liked that, because they definitely didn't seem to.

Murphy had tried to keep his distance, but failed miserably after one of the group member's named Harris tried to strike up a conversation with me. Or I don't know, decided to be that one guy who's a fucking creep.

I had been walking, minding my own business as I tried to wake myself up, thinking about how Murphy had ran his fingers through my hair, considering messing it up more so he would do it again, when suddenly I had felt a hand on my shoulder. Which had really scared the shit out of me because everyone who was on the 'is allowed to touch me' list was walking in front of me. (Refer to Murphy and June.)

"Hey." I said extremely loudly, trying to shrug his hand off of my shoulder. "Stop." I said even louder as I tried to lift his hand off my shoulder, getting even more freaked out by the way he was smiling at me. I really needed to learn how to socialize with people, because I'm sure he was trying to be friendly, probably.

As if on queue, Murphy turned around and didn't even pause as he stepped back towards me lividly. With one swift motion he punched Harris' elbow, knocking Harris's hand off my shoulder.

"Hey!" Harris barked, withdrawing his arm to his body as he stared at Murphy. "What was that about?"

"Don't you fucking touch her again or I will rip your arm out." He hissed, looking at Harris like if he tried it again he was going to definitely do it.

"John!" Daddy Jaha scolded, stopping his walking to look at Murphy.

Without another word from Murphy he quickly grabbed my hand and lead me far away from Harris to walk with him instead. After a moment the rest followed, and as I walked past June and Breton she raised a brow as if to say 'I told you so.'

It didn't even matter to me, though. It probably should have, but it didn't. I hadn't wanted Harris to touch me, and Murphy had solved that problem for me. Not really the best way to solve a problem, but still. If Murphy hadn't been there, I'm sure I probably could've fixed the problem myself. But it was nice, being able to rely on someone to protect you. Having someone on my team.

"Do you have a 'Riley needs to be rescued' alarm in your brain or something?" I asked Murphy as he finally slowed down, having made enough room between us and the group.

"Why is it that you are consistently in trouble?" Murphy rebutted as he let out a deep breath, looking at me from the corner of his eye.

"I have been wondering that exact same thing this whole time we've been on earth." I admitted, shrugging and looking out in front of us. "Do you think Harris meant any harm by putting his hand on my shoulder?"

"I really don't fucking care if he did or didn't." Murphy admitted, his grip on my hand tightening. "He shouldn't have touched you, regardless."

"Man, we are both so weird." I finally admitted as I let out a deep huff, tilting my head down slightly to let hair fall into my face, just to swish it out of my way. Hair is so much fun, I can't believe I had thought about putting it up.

"What do you mean?" Murphy asked, and I could feel his eyes on me.

"I mean, I should theoretically be like, mad at you or something, right?" I started, turning my head slightly to look at him.

Damn, Murphy was beautiful. Even covered in sand, and with his hair nearly in dreadlocks it was so dirty. Whenever his intense blue eyes stared at me, it felt like he could see right through me.

"Like, I should be like 'Hey, I had it.' or 'You didn't need to do that, he wasn't doing anything.' But, honestly, I'm happy you did it." I said as I shrugged at him, failing miserably at stopping a smile from creeping onto my face as I looked at him. "Because I know that's how you show that you care about me."

Murphy let out a deep sigh, looking away from me. "It's probably not the best way to show I care about you though, right?"

But I wanted his eyes back on me, so without even worrying about the consequences, I brought my free hand up to his face, resting my hand on his cheek and gently pulling his face back to look in my direction. Murphy looked blankly at me, waiting for me to speak.

"It isn't the best way, but I definitely like it." I admitted, smiling at him as I watched a smirk grow on his face. I let go of his cheek, satisfied with the new expression on his face.

"You like the idea of violence?" Murphy teased, letting go of my hand slightly to let our fingers intertwine together as he continued smirking down at me.

I shrugged, "Theres something about violence, I just get pumped." I said, smiling at him before feeling the blush slowly tinge my face as I added, "It's like my fight of flight response around you gets messed up, because when you get mad I want to get mad at what you're mad at, and then kiss you."

"Well," Murphy let out a chuckle as he yanked my arm, pulling me closer to him to whisper in my ear, "If it makes you want to kiss me, I'll have to do it more often."

My breath hitched as his face lingered close to mine, as I hesitantly turned my head towards his. I couldn't help but look down at his lips, that were only inches away from mine. As my eyes worked their way back to his, I noticed his eyes on my lips as well.

Murphy quickly brought his lips to mine, and although the kiss was so short we didn't even need to stop walking, I savored it. But, I savored every moment I had with Murphy.

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G." June sang from behind us, and I couldn't help but let out a snort as Murphy lifted his head away from mine. I turned around slightly to see Breton and June walking behind us, and Breton rolled his eyes before quickly nudging her in the side. "What?" She asked Breton as she looked at him offendedly.

As usual, I had no clue what Breton had said, but I can only assume it was along the lines of, "Let them be teenagers, June."

Because she let out a deep sigh before rolling her eyes at him and then looking back at me and muttering, "Sorry."

It was nearing mid afternoon when things actually got a little more interesting. I had fallen behind a bit up another dune, and Murphy had lagged behind with me. At the top of the dune, Jaha stopped, looking around.

"Sir, you recognize anything?" Caspian, one of the members Jaha had recruited asked.

"The tent was near here, I'm sure of it." Jaha said confidently, slowly walking down the dune behind June and Breton.

The rest of the crowd stopped at the top, and Murphy and I quickly maneuvered around them.

"What's a matter, you guys got some place better to be?" Murphy taunted as he started descending down the dune. We reached up to Jaha, Breton and June fast, which I found to be a relief. The more distance between us and those others, the better. They certainly didn't like us, and Murphy's taunts and threats were not helping.

Jaha stopped, looking in the close distance. I followed his gaze to see a cart. I raised a brow as we all stopped around him, looking at it.

"See anyone?" Murphy asked, and Jaha shook his head before starting to walk again.

"Stop!" Breton hissed, and we all stopped dead in our tracks, looking back at him nervously. He motioned for us to stay still as he quietly started walking towards the cart, drawing an arrow quietly.

That man was like the definition of stealth. He made no sound, and the first noise I actually had heard from his direction was when he released the arrow. A thud came from behind the cart, and Jaha ran to see what had happened.

We all quickly caught up, and I looked around the cart hesitantly. I hadn't expected to see the body of a woman. She must've been a few years older than me. Well, not anymore at least. She had died instantaneously, Breton had shot an arrow through her head.

"Remind me not to piss off Breton." Murphy whispered to me, looking at Breton warily.

"Was that really necessary?" Jaha asked, sounding like a complete dad as he frowned at Breton.

Breton grunted, putting away his bow as he nodded. "That tattoo on her face. She was a thief. She would've tricked us into helping her, and then robbed us blind. We must hurry, I doubt she was alone."

Damn. Breton knew his shit. Breton turned to head away, not even bothering to see if we were following. Jaha was the first to follow, and then Murphy.

June and I shared a glance before we started walking, and I couldn't help but ask, "Is Breton always this uptight about strangers?"

"Mostly." June said as she shrugged. "But I trust his decisions. He's lived here his whole life, he knows who we can and can't trust." June continued as we caught up to Murphy and Jaha, whom were only five feet behind Breton.

"He also knows the way to the city of light." Jaha added, flashing a smile back at us. Man, Jaha was creepy sometimes. A creepy dad.

Breton let out a deep sigh before saying, "I said I had a general idea." Breton slowed down, letting us catch up with him. "I grew up on stories about the city of light. In every story they'd say you had to follow the north star to find it."

June smiled at Breton, quickly jumping away from my side and next to his. She grabbed his hand, and I could tell they were both smiling at each other. What dorks.

"Well, stories are enough for me, I guess." I mumbled as I watched the two of them.

"Better than the 'nothing but fate' Jaha was going to lead us on" Murphy whispered, surprising me when he brought his face close to mine to whisper it in my ear. His face lingered by mine until he saw a smile on my face.

Murphy then grabbed my hand like he had always. It felt significant now, and I started realizing every little thing we had done as kids was almost like foreshadowing. I mean, besides the fact that I hadn't known I'd go to earth. Although, I had hoped when we were kids that we'd get married. But that's just dumb kid stuff.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, we fell into step with June and Breton. June smiled at me, and I smiled back. Murphy on the other hand rolled his eyes, and looked at Breton.

"So, I gotta ask," Murphy began, "What really made you ditch your home for us?"

I couldn't deny it, it was a good question. It had definitely been on mind the past day, but I would never admit that after I had seen Breton with that bow.

Breton let out a deep sigh. "My whole life I've been told I had to be a monster to survive."

Ouch. I had always assumed growing up as a grounder must've been rough, but that sounded intense. Even after all the stories last night, he had never mentioned something like that.

"I guess meeting June made me realize that wasn't true." Breton finished, and damn. I had never guessed that Breton would be the master of smooth talking, but after I had heard him say that I understood why June loved him so much.

Breton wasn't afraid to tell us the truth, even if the truth meant he revealed something most people wouldn't admit to anyone. Like the fact that he was supposed to become a monster and ended up wanting to be in love instead.

The walk grew quiet, and although it was a comfortable quiet, I still had wanted to break it. I had so many new sorts of questions to ask Murphy, and as Breton was forced to speed up to talk to daddy Jaha, I found the perfect time to.

"So, were there any girls in your section of the skybox?" I asked quietly, but not quiet enough for June to not hear.

She muttered something in grounder, and quickly jumped ahead to join Breton and Jaha. Well, that fixed that problem.

Murphy chuckled as he watched June fall into step with Breton. "There was only one girl in our section." He said, his eyes flickering towards mine for a moment as he squeezed my hand. "And after your story about Reed's previous roommate, I have a feeling that was the girl that had been brought to my section."

I had never realized that they would do that. That all it had taken for me to see Murphy again would've been to cut my mattress open and nearly slit someone's throat with a spring. Not to say that's a sane thing to do, or anything.

"Hey." Murphy mumbled, yanking my arm to get my attention. "I know where your mind is going, but you wouldn't have wanted to get yourself in my section."

"Don't tell me what I would've wanted." I mumbled back. "I had nightmares every night for the past year when I was on the dropship. Ever since you had turned 17 last year, and I realized your next birthday would be your last. I would've done anything to see you again."

"We never celebrated my birthday." Murphy said changing the topic slightly, "Then again you had been kind of busy recovering from intense brain swelling when I had my birthday. Your birthday will be in a couple months, though."

"Should I have gotten you a gift?" I teased. "I'm sure I can find something. Maybe a nice rock?"

Murphy chuckled, and I watched as he shook his head. His thumb stroked the back of my hand. I could tell there were plenty of things he wanted to say, but instead he just smiled at me before shaking his head again and looking out in front of us.

"How many friends did you have in the skybox?" Murphy asked after a long drawn silence.

"Reed, and I guess Monty and Jasper." I admitted, shrugging. "I didn't really hang out with Monty and Jasper as much as Reed did, though. But you know me, I've never really been a social butterfly. I could've had a lot more, though. Finn, Octavia. They were all in my section. But I never bothered to talk to them. A couple times Finn talked to Reed, and I had been sitting next to her when he did. That pretty much sums up most of my social interactions. Monty and Jasper were fun to be around, though. The second Reed laid her eyes on Monty I know they were going to be more than friends."

I forced myself to stop talking, worried that I would cry. Murphy's hand squeezed mine, bringing me back from my memories.

"Tell me more about Reed." Murphy said, and I raised a brow at him.

"I've told you everything about her." I reminded him, my heart feeling tighter.

"It's good for you to talk about her." Murphy said, shrugging and throwing me a half smile. "And I highly doubt you've told me everything."

I let out a deep sigh, feeling my breathing quiver slightly. God, why was Murphy always right?

"Reed loved reading, when we were in the skybox. Those first few weeks, I had been a mess." I looked away from Murphy, and out in front of us. "I had just realized I wouldn't see you again, and I was just depressed. Once Reed had realized I wasn't going to stab her with a mattress spring, she would climb up to the top bunk and read to me. Her favorite thing to read me was Lord of the Rings." I couldn't help but smile at the memory of her changing her voice for every character.

Murphy squeezed my hand, and I looked at him. He smiled back, nodding his head for me to continue. I let out another deep sigh and looked back in front of us. My heart clenched again, and I inhaled a sharp breath. I really didn't want about Reed anymore, because I could feel myself close to shaking.

"Let's talk about you." I said, my head turning to him as I gave him a hopeful smile.

"No, you're not winning that easily, Riley Parker." Murphy said, smiling as he shook his head, dismissing it.

"Fine." I hissed back, squinting my eyes at him as he smirked back. "I'll just talk about things about Reed you're really not. Going. To. Want. To. Hear."

Murphy laughed, shaking his head before raising a brow. "Try me."

"Reed and I synced up periods so fast. Did you know she has a very heavy flow? She was also very prone to yeast-" I said, watching the color drain from Murphy's face as he tried to look away for a moment to recover.

"Rhy-" Murphy started, but I raised an index finger to silence him.

"She would only wear pads. We used to share bras. She would tell me these sexy dreams she had about-" I continued, trying to continue being serious, but failing miserably as I saw the incredulous look on Murphy's face.

"Shut up, Riley." Murphy grumbled, giving me an uneasy glance.

"She would fart only at night. Her farts smelled so badly, too. It was probably all those beans they fed us. Sometimes, she'd warn me by saying 'incoming'. She also could fall asleep in literally any position. Ass in the air, it didn't matter. One time I came into the room and found-" At this point my whole face was red, I was laughing so hard. I could barely breath, I hadn't laughed like that in so long.

"I know you're saying this stuff to prove a point, Rhy." Murphy said, "But you're just proving my point."

I stopped walking, and Murphy looked at me as he squeezed my hand. "What?"

Murphy let out a deep sigh before smirking. "I was trying to have you talk about her and laugh, and think about the mundane times. Cherish them. And even though you were trying to piss me off by talking about weird girl shit, I still got you to laugh. More than laugh, really."

Murphy was right. For a few minutes, I got to laugh about the weirdest memories about Reed. Stuff I hadn't told anyone, for so many more reasons than one.

With Murphy right there, smirking at me, waiting for me to get mad at him, I couldn't help but do the opposite. Sure, I was kind of pissed. But, I was also happy. Insanely happy. He had been right, I did need to talk about the weird little things.

So, it was my turn to close the space between us. I let go of his hand, and then wrapped my arms around his neck, pushing his head down towards mine. I could always feel a different emotion coming from Murphy whenever we kissed. Sometimes he seemed greedy, like he needed the kiss to survive. Other times, like this time, it seemed to take him by surprise, and I could feel how much he cared about me as his lips gently glided against mine.

But, as usual on the journey to the city of light, June's voice stopped us from continuing.

"You can't get mad at me every time I want to embarrass them!" June yelled, and I broke away from Murphy to look at her.

She wasn't even being serious. I don't even understand what she was doing. She was apparently annoyed at Breton because he told her to not do exactly what she ended up doing.

As I let go of Murphy, he let out a small chuckle as he quickly pressed a kiss on my forehead and then grabbed my hand again, dragging me to catch up with an equally embarrassed June and Breton.

* * *

As the sun neared falling, I started to get a little bit energized. I mean, I had walked all day so I was exhausted, but as the cool air swept in I found myself wanting to run, and jump around. Murphy had let go of my hand some time earlier, so there was really nothing holding me back.

"What's up with you?" Murphy asked from beside me as he could tell I was wanting to jump out of my skin.

"I want to run." I admitted, shrugging. "I have never ran on sand before." I added as we started to reach the base of another dune.

"Fine." Murphy said, shrugging. But before I could even start I felt him push me back slightly. "I'll beat you to the top."

"Hey!" I yelled, quickly recovering and following him. Running in sand was even harder than running on dirt. Every time you took a step, your foot sunk in a bit. But I was determined to win. If there was only one thing I could say I was at least good at, it was running. I was able to pass him, and I heard him groan as I did.

"Slow down." I heard him yell from behind me, but all I could do was laugh and continue running.

Getting to the top first was exhilarating. I had beat him by a landslide, in my opinion. Once he noticed I got to the top he slowed his pace in defeat. I looked down at everyone as they made their way up the dune, and I couldn't stop myself from jumping up and whooping.

Murphy looked back up at me, a smile spreading over his face when he saw how happy I was. Like when I had ran around the forest, us making our way back and forth to get Monty's still.

And then Murphy looked behind me and all the color and happiness drained from his face. I hadn't even had time to look around me when suddenly a man grabbed me, bringing a knife to my neck.

For the third fucking time on earth, I found myself with a knife to my throat. That couldn't possibly be a normal occurrence for people.

"Riley!" Murphy yelled, and everyone's attention was brought to me, and the man holding a knife at my throat. They all stopped dead in their tracks as the man pushed me a bit, making me walk down the dune in front of him back towards the group.

"Hand over your food, guns, and water." The man demanded. He had a raspy voice, and maybe it was because he had a knife to my throat, but I had a strong feeling he was ugly.

Murphy looked like he wanted to murder the guy behind me. And to be fair, after our conversation a few nights before when he had mentioned he would hurt anyone who hurt me, he probably did want to kill the guy. I certainly wanted the guy dead.

"We don't want trouble." Jaha said as he raised his hands.

"Then hand everything over." The guy hissed back.

It had felt like an hour went by while this guy demanded oddly specific things. He wanted everything in a bag, he wanted everyone to then back up. He wanted me to grab the bag. He wanted everyone to stay where they were while we backed up, all the way up the dune as everyone was forced to watch from half way down. Right when we got at the top I had started to really worry. Not to say I hadn't been nervous before, but for all I knew he was going to kill me, or steal me.

What he had done wasn't the nicest thing, but was most certainly my favorite of the all the possible outcomes. He withdrew the knife from my neck so fast I didn't even comprehend it, and then he whacked me over the head with the blunt end.

Something was wrong with my life. How was it that things like having knives to the throat, and being knocked unconscious were actually repeated offenses?

Everything went black for me, and by the time I finally came to it was dark outside. Someone had carried me down to the base of the dune, and that someone was hovering super close to my face.

It was Murphy. Relief washed over his face as my eyes opened and I groaned. He quickly brought his face closer to mine, placing a kiss on my forehead before sitting back up.

"There, she's up." Were not the first words I had wanted to hear, let alone how rudely Caspian had said them.

"Damn." I groaned, and Murphy started helping bring me to my feet by grabbing my arms and pulling. "Why am I always the one who gets hit over the head unconscious?" I grumbled.

"Are you alright?" Murphy asked as he finally brought me to my feet. He gently brushed my hair, moving it away from my face.

Before I could respond Caspian butted in again, "If she's not, we're leaving her here." Which honestly was a dumb thing to say with how angry Murphy already was.

"Say that again and I'll end you." Murphy spat, and Caspian's mouth dropped. Everyone seemed to stop breathing for a moment, their eyes on Murphy. "In a noncriminal way." He quickly added, giving Jaha a very very slightly apologetic glance. We were supposed to be acting like noncriminals, not like insane kids. And that was his second outburst of the day.

"I'm fine, thank you very much." I said to Caspian, under my breath adding, "Dickweed." Only Murphy had heard it and his eyes met mine and he smiled.

"It's time to go home." Caspian said exasperatedly.

"And where exactly is that?" Jaha asked as he turned away from Murphy and looked at Caspian.

"Sir, I know you're trying to take us to a better place, but look around." Caspian said as he motioned around us, "We've got no food, no water, and we're following some story a grounder heard growing up."

"His name is Breton." June snapped, anger flashing in her eyes as she looked at Caspian. She had been the second closest to me after Murphy, most likely also worried about my wellbeing.

"You need to choose your battles June." I whispered to her, and she turned her head for a moment to glare at me. "Correcting Breton's name shouldn't be one right now." June rolled her eyes and looked back at Caspian.

"We can't be far." Breton spoke up.

"Why should we trust you?" Caspian asked as he looked at Breton, crossing his arms over his chest.

The moment those words came out of his mouth I knew trouble was near happening, and without even thinking I jumped to June, holding her. "Let go of me so I can punch his fucking face off." June hissed to me, trying to wiggle free. We were one outburst away from getting kicked out of the group.

"Wrong battle." I whispered back, holding onto her tighter.

"Breton," Jaha saying Breton's name calmed June a bit, and she stopped fighting me to listen to what he had to say. "If you're wrong all of us will die. If we turn back now, we live."

June tensed again at the idea of Breton being wrong, and I let out a groan.

"So that's it, we've reach the point of no return?" Murphy asked bitterly, taking a step closer to June and I.

"I didn't say that." Jaha replied.

"You pretty much hinted at it." I said under my breath, slowly letting go of June to test if she would try to run again. She didn't, and I let out a sigh of relief.

"John," Once again, hearing Jaha call Murphy 'John' was just weird. "That is the north star." Jaha said, walking closer to us and pointing at a star up above us, towards the dune I had nearly died on. "After you."

I looked over at Murphy and he nodded at Jaha before looking at me. I smiled at him as I turned towards him and walked to him. He smiled at me and then looked behind to June, who sighed deeply before looking at Breton. Breton nodded, and with that we all started heading towards the north, blindly following a star.

"I believe this is what they call a leap of faith." Jaha said confidently as he followed behind us.

I snorted, shaking my head. "Nah, we just really have nothing better to do."

Which was the truth. What else would we have been doing, and what would we have done if we had given up and gone back?

Murphy took a step closer to me as we walked, quietly whispering to me, "I could think of a million better things we could be doing right now." I looked at him exasperatingly. He had that smirk on his face that made my heart do back flips. Still not a good reaction for a heart.

"Really?" I whispered back, rolling my eyes. "I just had the lights knocked out of me. Now is probably not the time for the smooth talking."

From beside me I heard Murphy chuckle before getting even closer to me to whisper, "If you insist." He then stepped away and picked up speed, walking in front of us to lead.

I could feel myself finally blushing as I watched him walk away. In all honestly I had no clue when a right time would be, but I had hoped it would be soon. And as Murphy turned his head, giving me another smirk before looking back to the north star, I realized we both wanted it and needed it to be soon.

I also realized just how important this journey was to him. The group treated us all like criminals, but him more importantly. Not to say that him acting out wasn't the reasoning behind it, but still. Some part of Murphy needed a city of light. So, all of me wanted him to get it.


	9. Bodyguard of Lies

**This is the end of season two! I'm so sad. Season two was amazing to write. I can't really start season three until it finishes, but I'll be posting some tiny bits of what happens in the three months between two and three. I'm also writing a bit in Murphy's POV, whether or not I post it is another story. If you want to reach out, the tumblr is rileyparkerneedstoshutup.**

* * *

The walk had taken a turn for the worse as the night went on. The three men and one woman that had followed Jaha and us were well, annoying as fuck. Breton and June had gotten so pissed off with them, they had ended up about 30 feet ahead of us, leading the way.

"It'd sure be nice to have some sign that we're not just marching to our own deaths." Richards said, and I was beyond thankful June wasn't within ear shot to hear that.

"We're not." Jaha dismissed, and I couldn't help but to look at him skeptically.

"Hey, tell me if you know this one." Harris started, having made up another crude ass joke. His jokes were the reason June and Breton had distanced themselves from us. It was either they distanced themselves or they killed Harris, and Jaha had told them they couldn't do the latter.

June and Breton were both strong-willed, and even though I bet they were as tired as us, they somehow pushed through.

"Not again, please." Murphy groaned from beside me. We had been walking so close that our arms touched the whole time. It was like there was some magnetic pull, as we always gravitated closer to each other.

"A grounder and a reaper walk into a bar." Harris began, and I started to groan too. "Bartender looks at the grounder and says,'We don't serve your kind here.' The reaper gets up and leaves." Harris finished, and I looked around Murphy to glare at Harris.

"I will take Jaha's staff and beat you to death with it." Murphy hissed, not even bothering to look over at Harris. I couldn't help but snort at that, and our eyes met for a moment before we both continued looking ahead.

"John." Daddy Jaha said scoldingly, like a dad. Jaha was such a dad, it was so annoying.

"Or this one." Harris started again. I groaned again, and I felt Murphy grab my hand and give it a squeeze. "An arker, a grounder, and a mountain man walk into a bar."

"Another fucking bar joke." I whispered under my breath, and from beside my Murphy let out a chuckle.

"Arker says, 'I'll take some moonshine,' Grounder says, 'I'll take some too.' And the mountain man, he says-"

We never got to hear what the Mountain man says. A loud click came from beside us, and suddenly I found Murphy tackling me into the ground away from Harris. Murphy's weight pushed onto me so quickly was near crushing. His arms on either side of me, his chest to my back and one of his legs in-between my legs, as much as I would've normally been okay with all of this, definitely not in a desert, surrounded by you know, people.

I turned my body and looked around Murphy to see where Harris had been. He wasn't there anymore. Well, one of his feet was. He had blown up. I looked at Murphy as he lifted himself away from me to make room for me to turn onto lying on my side and looking up at him. There was blood all over his face and my heart did a scary flop.

"Are you hurt?" I asked, reaching up to wipe the blood from his face.

"No, It's not my blood." Murphy dismissed, shaking his head as he looked over at where Harris had been.

Ew. I had wiped off Harris's blood. There was Harris's blood all over my hand now. Gross. Before I could complain about it, a forearm fell down beside us. I tensed up, but the other woman screeched and started backing herself up until another explosion erupted. She had sat on a land mine, and yet again Murphy pressed his body to mine.

"God damnit." Murphy hissed, his arms wrapping around me as he lifted me from the ground, sitting himself down and pulling me onto his lap, making sure I couldn't move a muscle.

"No one move!" Jaha yelled. "We're in the middle of a minefield."

"Well, anybody else want a sign?" Murphy mumbled sarcastically as he let out another deep breath, resting his chin on my shoulder. It was nice, having Murphy so close to me. Especially because I had been so worried only moments before that he had been hurt. We had found ourself in a freaking minefield, but we were okay.

I looked in front of us to June and Breton, who had crouched on the ground next to each other and were looking back at us in horror. I let out another groan, and turned my head to look at Murphy.

"Are you okay?" Murphy asked as his eyes met mine, concern written in his intense gaze. I looked at his hair and shook my head.

"There's a bit of Harris on your head." I replied, my stomach going uneasy. That was definitely not something I ever wanted to have to say, ever.

"Can you get it off?" Murphy asked, his arms staying around me.

"Can I? Yes. Do I want to? Not really." I admitted, and Murphy rolled his eyes. He was about to let go of me when I reached to his head and grabbed the piece of flesh, tossing it as far as I could. I shuddered, and Murphy held onto me tighter, his head moving closer to mine as he placed a quick kiss on my check.

That definitely made me feel better. His lips lingered on my cheek, and I could feel him smiling, which brought a smile to my face.

"You're okay." Murphy mumbled as he lips slowly left my cheek. I wasn't sure if he was saying that to remind me, or him, but either way it filled me with warmth.

The wind picked up more, and before any of us could even discuss a plan, we all had to cover ourselves. The wind blew the sand everywhere, and we had to keep our eyes and mouth's shut so it wouldn't get inside. Murphy had quickly tossed his hood over his head when It began, before doing the same for me and then wrapping his arms back around me. His chin went back onto my shoulder, and I leaned my head against his, my arms coming up to hold his against me.

We all stayed like that for hours. Too scared to move. We couldn't see, and in a minefield that was kind of a sense that you needed to use to not get blown up. I had found myself nearly falling asleep a few times. Murphy's strong arms were wrapped around me, and even though we were in the middle of a fucking minefield, I had felt safe.

When morning broke I felt Murphy begin to stir under me. I lifted my head up and looked around, finally able to see for the first time in hours. I looked down at our bodies. Our black clothes at turned a tawny brown from all the dirt and sand that had swept over us, becoming almost engrained in our clothes.

"It's clearing up." Richards said from behind us, and I looked to see Jaha was starting to stand.

Murphy's arms stayed around me as he nudged me to start getting up. He kept his arms around me as we both stood up, as if he was too worried that if I had left his arms I would get blown up. And to be fair, we didn't know whether or not their was a land mine next to me or not.

"We have light," Murphy said and I turned my head to look at him to see him glaring at Jaha, "And oh look, June's and Bretons foot prints are gone. Sand, it blows."

"This blows." I remarked as I looked from Murphy to June and Breton.

"Blows big time." Richards groaned.

"Do you see that?" Jaha asked, his eyes set on something in the distance. I followed his gaze to see bright shining lights peaking out from over the next sand dune.

"Guys!" June shouted, having seen what we could see as well. "It's the city of light!"

"We're so close." Jaha whispered. "You wanted a sign? Well, there it is. We have to push forwards."

"What about the mines?" Richards asked, the fear evident in his voice.

"June and Breton got that far without setting one off, there must be a way for us to get to them." I whispered, looking over at my friends sadly. June seemed excited, but also worried about how they would meet up with us. How the hell did those two manage to get so far without tripping one? Talk about light on their feet.

"We were meant to be here, John. Riley." Jaha said, "These landmines are just another test of our faith."

"Yeah well," Murphy huffed, pulling my back closer into his chest, "I was always crap at tests, so uh, please. After you, Chancellor."

"You were only crap at tests because you didn't feel like studying." I remarked, turning my head to look at him and smile.

"And you were always crap at tests because you were too lazy to study." Murphy added, raising a brow as he looked down at me.

"I wouldn't say lazy." I said, "I had just rather have spent time with you than study." A smile broke out on his face. I couldn't help but smile back and rest my head back on his chest.

"I'll lead." Jaha said confidently before yelling, "Breton and June, stay where you are. We will come to you."

"Don't worry," June shouted back, "We weren't really thinking about moving."

I snorted at June's remark, and I felt Murphy bring his head closer to mine, placing a kiss on the top of my head.

I had started to realize that it really didn't matter where you were. As long as you were with your friends, you'd be okay. We were in a fucking minefield and we weren't really even scared. We all had each other and that's all that mattered.

* * *

The day only got worse as the sun rose. Murphy had been dead intent on walking in front of me, so I was smack in between Murphy and fucking Richards, Craig leading up the rear. Richards was scared out of his mind and was so afraid he'd trip that every few steps he'd grab my back. I freaking hate it when people touch me, and I was so close to screaming.

"Four down and infinity to go, Jaha." Murphy yelled, really annoyed with how slow we had to walk behind Jaha's steps as he touched the ground with his cane to check for land mines.

"And Richards keeps touching my back." I added as Richards grabbed my shoulder again and I yanked it from his reach.

"Richards," Murphy hissed as he turned his head to glare behind me at Richards, "If you touch Riley one more time I will push you into a mine."

Richards didn't seem to like that idea, and quickly tried to make as much distance as he could from me as Murphy and I took another step forward.

"We can make it, John." Jaha replied confidently.

"I can't do this anymore." Richards whispered behind me, and I looked to see him begin to hyperventilate.

"Calm down egg head." I hissed back at him as Murphy took another step away and I followed.

"Who do you think it is, anyways?" Murphy asked as he looked at Jaha and stopped walking. "They must have power. A shower would be nice right now. Wash off the rest of Harris." I cringed as I grabbed onto one of his shoulders for support.

"Murphy I swear to god I will throw up if you remind me one more time." I whispered to him as I rested my head on his back. The dizziness from dehydration was starting to take its toll.

"No you won't." Murphy dismissed, but then he grabbed my hand that was on his back and gave it a comforting squeeze before putting it back on his shoulder.

"Sienna said it's a place where everyone is welcome." Jaha stated as he felt around again for another mine. We were so close to reaching up with June and Breton. They had sat back down and were watching us like it we were a movie.

"Well, that'd be a first, wouldn't it?" Murphy mumbled. The hurt in his voice hurt my heart.

He had never really been welcome anywhere, except with me. I never understood why, he was always so kind. Well, he was kind to me. He had gotten into fights, but he was protecting me. Maybe it was my fault he wasn't welcome, I don't know. All I knew was that he deserved a place where he was welcome.

The city of light was becoming a place that meant a lot to Murphy. The idea of being accepted, no longer a criminal.

"I'm starting to be kind of glad that guy stole our water." I whispered to him as I lifted my head away from his back and he took another step.

"Why?" Murphy asked as he turned his body slightly to look at me.

"Because if I had drank any water last night I would have to pee so badly right now." I remarked as I looked over at June and Breton. Murphy snorted, and I looked back at him to see him shaking his head and smiling at me.

"I can't take this." Richards whispered between heavy breaths, reminding me of how he was losing it. "They are right there." Richards continued, pointing to the measly 15 feet ahead of us where June and Breton sat.

Before anyone could reply, Richards started to run towards June and Breton. They both jumped up in surprise, and Jaha quickly caught on and chased after him, tackling him. They both ended up on the ground right next to June and Breton, and as the sand moved, I could tell they must've found a land mine right next to them.

"What the fuck are you two doing?" June asked and she hesitantly took a step away from them back to Breton.

"Playing football." I sarcastically shot back, letting go of Murphy's shoulders to jump into Richards footprints. I walked in Richards footprints as Murphy groaned behind me for a moment before following.

"Riley." Murphy hissed as I continued walking in the footsteps, getting closer to June and Breton. "Be careful."

"My plan originally was to nose dive into that mine." I snapped back sarcastically as I pointed to a land mine only a few feet away from me. "But, just for you, I won't."

* * *

Richards may have been an egg head who nearly killed all of us by running in a straight line to June and Breton, but he had lead the way for the rest of us. When we all reached them, Jaha glared at Richards before telling him to fall back. Jaha carefully felt the way around Breton and June, and before long we were all back in a line behind Jaha. Breton and June were in front of me, and Murphy behind me. Which was the preferred order for me, because Richards wasn't close enough to touch me and was too scared to place a hand on Murphy.

It took a few more hours to get through the rest of the minefield. The only way we had known we got through it was when Jaha looked at something in a mound of sand and grinned like an idiot. When we walked over to him we looked, and found a sign that said, "WARNING MINES" Which would've been a lot more helpful to have been on the other side of the minefield, but no one asked me.

"Another test, passed." Jaha said, grinning like a creep at the sign. "We made it. Come on." Jaha continued as he whipped around and started running for the dune.

Murphy and I were the first two to actually make it up the dune. This time I stuck close to him as we ran up, making sure to not make any distance just incase there was another crazy man with a knife on the top. There wasn't, but what we had found was debatably worse.

It hadn't been lights. It had been the sun reflecting off of huge solar panels. A shit ton of huge ass solar panels.

"Are you kidding me?" Murphy groaned as the others reached the top. "This is it?"

"I need to sit." I finally spat out, dropping to the ground and just sitting and looking at the damn solar panels. "and cry." I added, but no tears came. I was too mad to cry. Jaha had lead us across a fucking desert for solar panels. Jaha had given Murphy all this hope for a city of light, and we had been given solar panels.

"Well, guess what Jaha. Your enlightened society, it's not a city." Murphy hissed, "It's nothing."

I didn't even want to look at Jaha's face. All I had wanted to do was fight one of those solar panels for tricking us. And then fight Jaha, probably.

"I flew down from space. I defied death. It was all for a reason." Jaha forcefully said, taking a deep breath before muttering, "I has to be."

Jaha quickly started walking down the dune to the Panels, and everyone gave a collective groan before following. I dragged myself up to follow as well, fed up. Once we got to the panels, Jaha kept walking and looking around at them.

"Oh, what a joke." Murphy grunted.

"It doesn't make any sense." Jaha mumbled, and I glared at him. "The rest of the world is broken, but these panels are intact."

He had a point, but no one really wanted to hear it.

"Well we can fix that." Murphy hissed as he reached down and grabbed a rock, chucking it at a panel.

I was surprised with how well he threw it, but before I could express it, a horrifying thing shot up from the middle of the panel, flying towards us.

Murphy quickly jumped in front of me, defending me from whatever the hell it was. I looked around him at the thing in awe as I let out a 'Holy Shit'.

"What the hell is that?" Murphy asked, his eyes not leaving it.

"It's a drone" Jaha said excitedly, and suddenly the drone started to fly away from us in the direction we had been heading. "Don't loose sight of it!" Jaha added as he started running.

"Oh, way ahead of you." I hissed, gently pushing Murphy out of the way and sprinting to follow. I could hear Murphy groan from behind me, but it didn't stop me.

I was pissed as all hell, and chasing after that weird ass drone helped take away all the tension and stress I had been carrying with me.

"Where's it going?" I heard Murphy ask from behind me.

"I don't know." Jaha admitted.

I came to a halt at a beach. A freaking beach. There was a freaking giant ass body of water next to a fucking desert, and to top of the insanity train, there was a boat. We all came to a halt at the boat, in awe.

"We're gonna follow it, in this." Jaha said confidently as he set his feet in the water to get to the boat.

"Tell me," Murphy groaned from beside me, "What level of crazy is too much for you? I'm just curious."

But I couldn't laugh. I couldn't compute anymore when I realized how big the boat was.

"I hate to break it to you Jaha, but that boats only big enough for four people. There's seven of us."

A silence spread through the crowd at my words. Everyone was looking around at each other, trying to figure out exactly what my words meant. We had to split up.

"We need a boat, and a boat appears." Jaha said lividly, "This is our destiny."

"It's four people's destiny." I couldn't help but correct, my heart going into overdrive.

Richards and Craig quickly lunged on the boat, jumping on. Suddenly, three of the spots on the boat had been decided, leaving only enough room for one more person.

There was a long silence between the four of us before I finally turned to Murphy beside me and said, "Murphy, you should go."

I didn't want him to go. I didn't want him to leave us. But he deserved a chance to find the city of light more than the rest of us.

"Are you insane?" Murphy hissed as he looked down at me lividly, "And leave you?"

"I'll be okay." I said, but even I didn't completely believe that. "Someone's got to keep Jaha in line." I tried to joke, but no one laughed. "I'll be safe with June and Breton."

Murphy shook his head, furious. "Riley, no. This isn't how this is going to go down."

"Yes, it is." I hissed at him, my hands flying up and grabbing his shoulders. "And you'll come back for us and it will all be fine."

"Riley." Murphy said desperately as he looked into my eyes. I could see how offended he was by the idea of leaving me, even though I knew he wanted to find the city of light so badly.

"Murphy, please. I don't want to argue about this." I choked out, my grip on his shoulder's tightening, "I'll be okay, I promise."

There was a long silence between the two of us as we stared into each other's eyes. Finally my grip loosened slightly and he grabbed my neck to bring me in for one last kiss. It was quick, and filled with desperation.

Murphy rested his forehead against mine as he finally choked out, "I'll come back for you. I swear, Riley Parker. I will come back for you."

I couldn't help but smile to try to prevent myself from letting out a cry. "I know you will." I let out another deep breath before I added, "Please, be safe."

I felt him nod his head before he lifted his forehead away from mine giving me a kiss on the forehead, letting go of my neck and taking a step away.

He backed up a few steps before looking away and making his way to the boat, helping to push it off. Right before jumping in the boat he looked back at me.

"Riley-" Murphy began, but I cut him off.

"I know. Murphy. I know." I said, nodding my head and trying to keep a straight face. He nodded one last time before jumping into the boat. As they rowed out of distance he looked back one last time, and under my breath I whispered, "We will meet again."

ONE DAY LATER.

I hadn't moved. I sat myself down where Murphy had left me, and didn't move. I couldn't. A whole day went by, staring off at the water.

And he hadn't returned.

June and Breton had grown restless, and I could feel June's eyes on me as I heard her walking back to me, sitting down next to me.

"Riley, I don't-" June began, but I cut her off.

"Don't you fucking dare finish that sentence, June." I hissed back at her, my sights still staying on the water. June let out a deep sigh next to me. "He promised, I know he will come back."

June and I sat in silence for a few moments before she finally whispered, "You can't spend the rest of your life waiting here on this beach."

She was right. I knew she was fucking right and I had wanted to cry, but I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. It felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest and stomped into the ground.

"I can't get up, June." I finally responded, letting out a deep breath as I felt myself begin to hyperventilate.

"We'll give it one more day, and then we have to try to go back." June said, her eyes still on me.

After a few moments I finally managed to nod, and I could see her nod out of the corner of my eye before she got up and walked away.

I don't how I managed to keep it together the whole rest of the day. As the night came, I looked up at the stars. There, up above the damn water was the north fucking star. I heard crunching from behind me again and I felt June set her hand on my shoulder as she sat down next to me again.

"Do you think he knows?" I whispered, my eyes never leaving that damn star, "How much I love him?"

"Yes." June replied, her hand on my shoulder tightening, "I know he knows. And more importantly, I know how much he loves you even more."

Finally I let out a strangled sob, forcing my eyes shut as I felt the waterworks turning back on.

"How could you possibly know that?" I choked out.

"You never saw the looks he gave you when you weren't looking." June responded, her hand letting go of my shoulder as she brought it around to the farther shoulder, resting her arm. "He looked at you like this world would cease to exist if you weren't in it."

"June," I fumbled over my words as I opened my eyes again to look at the water, "I'm so scared. I feel like I'm losing my mind. How could I have let him go? What's happening to me?"

My whole body was shaking, and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop it. June didn't know what to say anymore. I could tell from her silence that she knew there was nothing she could say that would make this better. I had let him get on a damn boat and leave me, and he wasn't coming back.

My tears stopped when I saw a distant light flashing, and I jumped up so quickly June gasped.

"What's that?" I asked, taking a step into the water to try to see. I could feel the water flooding into my boots, but I didn't care.

"What's what?" June asked, not getting up.

"That light." I whispered. It was coming fast. Too fast. Suddenly the light whizzed over our head, and started down the beach to our left.

I didn't even think. I couldn't compute anymore, and my legs moved on their own accord as I chased after another drone.

"Breton, wake up!" June screamed as I heard her scramble to her feet, about to come after me. "Riley, wait!" June screamed to me, but I didn't slow down. I couldn't stop my legs. I was going to follow this drone until I found Murphy. Even if it meant swimming across the damn ocean.

I had to find him.


End file.
